16. A late bloomer..

 

At a party recently, I found myself eyeball-deep in a conversation whereby some of the ladies were waxing lyrical about waxing (haha! No pun intended!).  Before long, terms that had NOTHING to do with the obvious including “landing strip”, “Brazilian” (sometimes known as the “Playboy”), “Hollywood” (aka “The Sphinx”), “Californian” (also known as the “Mohican”) were splashing around in my head.  You would think after having 3 children I would not feel so bashful but after a while, I had to excuse myself as the conversation literally had me squirming.

I quite often find myself the butt of jokes because as much as I would like to think I am a trailblazer, the reality is a remarkable distance from my wistful perception.  In fact, my first eyebrow wax didn’t occur until well into my mid-20s.  First bikini? 22.  Handbags?  Not until I became a mother at the ripe old age of 30 and HAD to carry one – if only to carry all of Faith’s bits and pieces!  Facebook?  Only a few years ago when Faith joined.  Viber and Skype?  Last year.  WhatsApp?  Two months ago.  You get the picture.  Meanwhile, I am yet to ‘tweet’ or get ‘linked’ into anything, and its unlikely the latest craze of ‘pinning’ my interests will find me subscribing.  But never say never!

Which brings me to my girls.  I remember when they were younger, they would make comments like, “Oh!  I can’t wait to turn 10!”  Or “I cannot wait until I’m old enough to…”.  My response?  “Enjoy the age you are at because you only get to be that age once and once only.  Besides, there are so many magical things to experience at 8!” (think it was a conversation between Faith and I that time).   

Now, as they are a little older, the conversations revolve around development milestones, etc.  Without giving too much away (don’t want to embarrass them TOO much!), I tell them not to worry so much about things as being my daughters, the likelihood of ‘stuff’ happening later rather than sooner is very possible (AND not necessarily a bad thing!).   

I want for them to enjoy every minute of their childhood and not to be in such a hurry to experience their first kiss, have their first boyfriend, get married or move away from home.  Of course I know I’m only kidding myself and all these milestones are but a blink away but (sigh), as their mother, I just want to prolong where we are at right now for just a little longer.

And so, I tell them about me.  Sharing my teenage angst, my narrow escape (thrice!) of getting married waaaaaay before I was ready, and my thoughts and worries as a young adult.  I confess my many-many mistakes, all the ‘frogs’ I kissed and how glad I am to have (mostly) learnt from them and grateful to have not married or had children young as I would have done a lousy job.

As for me, I have learnt that its TOTALLY okay to ‘discover’ at my own (snail) pace and though it may take me longer to get to the ‘destination’ of where I am meant to be, I am learning to have fun along the way. 

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