No stilettos for this mom
During the Monday morning trip to Meijer mentioned in the post below, I had an observation. In our society, men are often prematurely and sometimes accurately judged and “executed” for driving Hummers or really big trucks that you need a ladder to get into, acting intolerably important with their Blue-tooth earpieces and loudly announcing they are going back to their room for a glass of cognac, of course revealing their ignorance by mispronouncing “cognac.” (Okay, the last one is a stretch but it did happen to me in Vegas while walking out of a theater at the end of a show.) But, possibly because I am a woman, I don’t often notice with equal frequency the obnoxious habits on the other side of the gender coin. However, I did on this day.
If you ever want to know where all the moms with young children and babies are on weekday mornings, go to Meijer. They are everywhere, yet it is still a surprisingly peaceful time to shop. While I was finding the humor in being surrounded by mothers dressed in similar clothes with similar expressions on their faces and realizing I was one of them in my lime green jump suit, I noticed one woman with children who stood out like George Bush at a Mensa meeting. I say “woman” because I will give her the benefit of the doubt that maybe she was a nanny or aunt or friend who was babysitting although it didn’t look like it.
This supermodel-skinny woman was dressed nicely but casually in a shirt and dressier-looking capri pants and as I glanced down, white stiletto heels. Shiny, white, plastic-coated 4- to 5-inch stilettos. Looking back at my adorable son chewing on his stuffed jug of milk attached to his cart cushion, I had to shake my head and bite my tongue. Having nearly 14 months worth of motherhood under my belt following 41 weeks of pregnancy, I can’t imagine doing a single minute of it in stilettos and I could only roll my eyes at the statement this woman was making with her plastic shoes and perfect hair and makeup. I’ll admit that maybe I was just a little jealous because I haven’t lost all my baby weight yet, was in desperate need of some hair therapy and was dealing with the latest acne breakout caused by the change of hormones since I am no longer breastfeeding. But even now, after a wonderful trip to the salon and going for a 2-mile walk this morning and seeing my face clearing up, I can still say to my son that this is one mom who will never be afraid to sacrifice beauty for functionality. He will learn true self-esteem by watching this mom walk tall in her flip-flops.