The most interesting thing happened today. While at the Wisconsin Firefighter's Memorial today, this mom noticed the oddest thing. Her nine year old daughter's legs were (gasp) shaved. How could this be? Who could of shaved them for her? Who would of made her do such a horrific thing? Well, come to think of it, when I shaved my legs this morning I noticed my (should be) nearly full shaving cream was just about empty. We homeschool and she hasn't slept over or visited any friends for a while, except for at the horse stable. It's highly unlikely that anyone over there would of convinced her to do this while grooming horses. I had to admit to myself that my child is not perfect. She planted this seed into her head and ran with it. She shaved her legs by herself by her own accord right here in my house while I was probably washing her supper dishes or her horse hair covered barn clothes or straightening her boots in the porch or picking up her forgotten ruler from under the dining room table. I'm shocked yet at the same time not surprised. We've worked hard at keeping our children "young" in spirit. But, her 10 year old friend shaves (so she says), the sale flyers are all around with pictures of young girls looking like teens, people around us encourage (much to my dismay) her to act older, she looks up to her pre-teen and teenage cousins. What is a mother to do?
Of course, the moment I noticed her legs she noticed me noticing and turned beet red. I called her aside and her first words to me were not, "I'm sorry" but this:
After you talk about my punishment with dad will you just write it out on paper what I can't do and for how long and put it on my desk. Of course my answer was no we will talk about this in person. The biggest problem in my eyes is the fact that she thought she needed to go behind my back to do something that "everybody else is doing". Where is her loyalty to our family and its rules? Where is her character? Where is her ability to be the fish swimming against the current? doing what is right despite the group?
The consequences will make her life unbearable for a while. Well, she'll think it's unbearable and I'll know it could be much worse. She'll have to deal with the hair growing back, possibly darker than the "clear blonde" it was in the first place. We'll all survive this first of hopefully not too many growing pains.
