Beauty in the Eyes of my Children

If you were on Facebook last week, you probably saw the post, “Exposed by My Children for What I Really Look Like,” written by a mom after viewing some photos her kids took of her on the beach. She didn’t like them, but her children unanimously agreed that while she saw “a fat woman wearing a black dress bathing suit to try to hide her weight issue,” her kids only saw a beautiful woman.

Well, I had my own “exposed by” moment this week.

I went to Kohl’s to return a top that I did not use for Blogger Bash this weekend, and since my budget was really low, hubby agreed to let me do an even-ish exchange for something else.

I have a confession to make first: I don’t hate my body. I don’t know if the builder put skinny mirrors in my home, but when I’m naked, I’m totally fine with what I see. Even, maybe, jazzed a little, considering I’m 48 and have absolutely failed at even trying to work out.

The problem is clothing. I have NO idea how or what is flattering with the exception of a plunging neckline and higher heels than I can usually manage. It’s a bizarre problem to have, but I’m really hoping against hope I can land a gig with a personal shopper, lol!

But seriously, this means that shopping is torture for me. Add to it the skinny mirrors in the shop and I’m sunk.

This is the first time, though, I brought Amelia with me while I was trying on clothes. Now Amelia is a wonderful kid. She has a sense of style, loves dress up and has no qualms at all about combining a Darth Vader mask, her bow and mittens to make a STATEMENT. That said, she knows how to dress appropriately for school, mostly.

So I selected 5 tops and 1 pair of Capris in my price range for the fitting room. I put on the pants and immediately didn’t like how they sat, but kept them on while trying on the shirts.

Shirt #1: After styling, looking at both sides of my butt, and sucking my tummy in and out, I figured I’d ask Amelia.

“What do you think?”

“Beautiful!”

Well, that was good to know, but my eye caught a few things I didn’t like. After all, I had 4 more to go and I could only bring one home. Pulled it off and put on the next one. This one was barely smoothed down before Amelia said, “Beautiful!”

Well, you can figure out what happened for the next 3 try ons. In fact, in the middle, I ungraciously said, “That’s not helpful,” but I could barely get it out without laughing.

Screw helpful.

My kid thinks I’m beautiful.

Now before you go thinking she was playing me, or just roboting a word, she’s damn good at knowing all about how to compliment. She loves to do it (wow! something we did right!) and she spent about a year or so trying out compliments to figure out which ones were appropriate and when. And, I admit, the tops didn’t look bad.

The winning top had a “me” vibe to it and, naturally, Amelia’s stamp of approval, and when I got home, I didn’t even have to put it on, hubby simply saw it and, “I like that kind of stuff on you.”

So, I got a trip to Kohl’s, a nice even exchange shirt, and an ego boost from my lovely daughter.

Oh, and PS, I wanted to find a crummy photo of myself to make a point, but I couldn’t – by which I mean ALL OF A SUDDEN, all my dang photos looked good, when I know for a fact they made me cringe when I first looked at them. This is what the love of a child can do you for you!

And since you’re all dying to see what the top looks like, here it is:

Have a great day and remember, you’re more beautiful than you think!