Bad Ass?

My daughter was in high school when a routine dental exam revealed that her two top and four bottom front teeth needed root canals.  Weird right?  We could not figure what was going on?  They check again, and then the dentist said, “Was she ever hit in the mouth while growing up?”

This daughter, took to sports immediately.  She had more competitiveness in her blood than really was healthy.  In elementary school, when they would have the kids form two lines, for a relay race of sorts, she would purposely position herself so she would get to race a boy.  She took great pleasure in being faster than a boy, and she was faster… a lot.  I admit after all these years, I took a little pride in it too.  She was great at sports and so it began.  The thing I didn’t love was when she got hurt.  She was tough, but it is just different when your little girl gets hurt than when it’s your son.  I know.  I know.  Sterotype…  boys are rough and tough.  A scar or knocked out tooth is cool and manly.  I remember when my son got a bloody nose in a soccer game while playing goalie and the blood was all over him.  He said, and I quote, “Mom.  Don’t wash the blood out of my uniform.  It makes me look like a bad ass goalie.”  He was like 8 or 10 years old?  Who says that?

My daughter had just gotten a full set of braces and was a little sore.  Like I said, she was tough.  A little ibuprofen and she was good to go.  Despite her weighing maybe 60 pounds, she attacked the soccer ball like she was 6 foot and weighed 185!  She was a forward and was running full speed for the ball, and a defender kicked it with all their might.  One of those kicks where you are hoping to send it all the way down to the other end of the field.  Unfortunately, it really didn’t go far.  My daughter’s mouth stopped it.  Stopped it hard.  She went down.  When I got to her I could see we had a problem.  She was crying, but her mouth wasn’t moving.  Her lips were smashed onto the braces top and bottom.  As I peeled them loose, her lips were like hamburger, and she bled profusely.  She went back in as soon as we could rinse her mouth of all the blood.

“Yes Mr. Dentist, now that I remember, she did get hit in the mouth.”  Thank goodness for the progress of dentistry today.  I ask my daughter, “Would you like to have veneers and white fillings?  Or would you rather be a bad ass soccer forward?”

I am participating in a blogger campaign by Bucks2Blog for Cosmetic Dentist NYC and was
compensated. However, the views and opinions are my own.

A Shallow Use of Time?

I just spent the evening shopping with my daughter.  To those who brush off shopping as a shallow use of one’s time, I say that there’s a lot more to shopping than spending money.  I know this, because we have just as much fun whether we have money or not. 

This feeling goes back to when I would shop with my Mom.  We would talk about anything and everything as we walked through the mall.  We would giggle and laugh at outrageous fashions and ridiculous prices.  We would try to guess how much an item would cost.  We would gasp with excitement at an incredibly reduced clearance item.  But it was all of the in between that made it such a special time.  Talking about friends, boys, school, music, and whatever was happening in our life.  I shared more with my Mom trying clothes on in the dressing room, than I ever did at home.  Occasionally, there would be a goal such as a new pair of jeans, or a dress for a dance, but for the most part we were just spending time together.  And we loved it.

Now, with having raised five daughters, I realize we have spent and still spend, a lot of time shopping.  Again, people might say it is a petty or worldly waste of time… but I disagree.  We walk together smiling, locked arm in arm talking… and talking… and talking.  I have hurt myself laughing several times, when one of us tried on something that although it looked nice on the hanger, looked positively ridiculous on a real person.  Two new granddaughters have already added to our shopping memories.  We now know that despite the guarantees of a diapers leak proof barrier, these promises do not hold true while in the mall.  I could go on and on, but the point is that when my daughter said “Hey let’s go shopping!” it meant that she wanted to spend time with me.  She wanted to hang out with me.

Sure, we all do have our weaknesses.  No jacket within a five mile radius of my daughter is safe.  She will find it.  I, on the other hand, can name every mall with a See’s Chocolates location in the state of Utah.  And shoes… well… shoes are a universal weakness that runs deep in us all.  It’s genetic. 

Jackets and shoes are the things that are petty and worldly… and probably the chocolates… but the shopping?  It’s somuchmore.