Listen to your mom

I was the kind of kid whose parents would say “I can’t wait until you have kids and they are just like you”.    I don’t have kids yet but if my cat is an indication of how karma is going to bite me in the ass, I’m screwed!

My parents raised my brother and me to make our own decisions and to accept the consequences of our actions, good or bad.    I made a lot of interesting decisions.

I was stubborn.  My mom tells me that one day she had to go to the bank and I had to go with her.  For whatever reason on that day, I was adamant on wearing a pair of underwear on my head, so she let me.  I have given up trying to decipher why I did the things that I did as a child and have chalked it up to a weird combination of East Coast/British genes.  The more I learn about my parents the more I believe that I am genetically predisposed to my quirks. 

My mom grew up in a house that had a two-seater outhouse...

Side note:  When I goggled “two seater outhouse” to find a picture I found this.  I promise that this is NOT what I was referring to.

My dad once ate a hearty portion of a bag of cement powder (Solution: do not eat any rocks or water and then proceed to roll around for a day or two)...

This leads me to the day in primary school when I decided to wear a see-through outfit.  A older girl down the road had given me a bunch of her old dress up clothes.   I was immediately in love with these clothes because A: they were given to me by a girl who was 5 years older than me and therefore immediately considered cool and B: because there was one outfit in particular that was purple and sparkly. 

I decided that because I loved the purple outfit that I was going to wear it to school.  I got up one morning and put it on. 

Mom:  Jody, you probably shouldn’t wear that to school because it is see-through.

Me: No it isn’t. 

Mom:  Yes it is.  The kids are going to make fun of you.

Me (becoming increasingly stubborn): NO IT ISN’T. 

My mom didn’t make me change.  She had given me the option, let me weigh the pros and cons and then allowed me to make the decision.  I was wearing the purple sparkly outfit to school! 

So not only was this outfit very see-through it was also made of some combination of completely unnatural fibres and as the day went on it became increasingly itchy. 

Kid:  I can see you underwear

Me: No you can’t!

Other Kid: Yes we can!  Jody has hearts on her underwear.  Jody has hearts on her underwear.

This is when I realized that my mom hadn’t been trying to trick me out of wearing this amazing outfit to school.  She had been telling the truth.  I had willingly gone to school in an outfit that you could see my underwear through!  Sadly me being in my underwear in public is becoming a reaccuring theme.

There was nothing that I could do.  I had to stick out the rest of the day with my underwear on parade until I got home.  In tears I proclaimed to my mother that the kids had made fun of me and they could see my underwear!  She told me that she had warned me, which was true.  From that day forward I have never had the urge to wear something see-through out in public.  Not even in university where wearing a shirt as a dress is apparently acceptable.  Maybe short, maybe low cut, but never see-through!