Adjustment
Last year I took my kids to Florida for a week. The intent was for me to stay off my gimpy foot, and since I'm incapable of sitting at home looking at all the things that need to be done without doing them, we went away. One of the things we bought when there was this really neat set of googles and flippers for my daughter. The have Little Mermaid on them, with a shell part that goes over the forehead. In other words, they are rather unique and memorable.
My daughter should have been born a mermaid. Whether it's because of the genetic disorder, or just the way she turned out, she is totally lost in land sports. In the water, however, she shines. Her absolute joy in being submerged is wonderful to watch. It's therefore not surprising that she identifies so much with the Little Mermaid.
Like her mother, she's also a bit absent-minded (sorry, babe!) and left her very special mermaid goggles on the deck at the YMCA. We checked the lost and found and searched the deck but they were gone. She was upset, and I was pissed that someone would take them. A few weeks later, I saw them on a kid in my daughter's swim class. I thought for a moment, and then approached the child's mother and gently asked if they had found those goggles on the deck. The mother said no, they hadn't. I was furious that they would take them, and then deny that they had. We bought them in Florida, and I've never seen them anywhere else!
I'm not naive about what humans do to one another on a daily basis, but it still hurts me to experience these little things. I couldn't resolve it within myself that someone could treat another person that way. I was hurt and angry that someone could hurt my daughter like that. We're talking about goggles here - not my car or my house or my daughters' body. Yet, it stayed with me.
My daughter needed new goggles now, so off I went shopping. Trying to find swimming goggles in Canada in September is probably akin to finding mittens in Arizona in June. Many stores later, I ended up at Canadian Tire. There in the swim section were the identical Little Mermaid goggles.
My daughter should have been born a mermaid. Whether it's because of the genetic disorder, or just the way she turned out, she is totally lost in land sports. In the water, however, she shines. Her absolute joy in being submerged is wonderful to watch. It's therefore not surprising that she identifies so much with the Little Mermaid.
Like her mother, she's also a bit absent-minded (sorry, babe!) and left her very special mermaid goggles on the deck at the YMCA. We checked the lost and found and searched the deck but they were gone. She was upset, and I was pissed that someone would take them. A few weeks later, I saw them on a kid in my daughter's swim class. I thought for a moment, and then approached the child's mother and gently asked if they had found those goggles on the deck. The mother said no, they hadn't. I was furious that they would take them, and then deny that they had. We bought them in Florida, and I've never seen them anywhere else!
I'm not naive about what humans do to one another on a daily basis, but it still hurts me to experience these little things. I couldn't resolve it within myself that someone could treat another person that way. I was hurt and angry that someone could hurt my daughter like that. We're talking about goggles here - not my car or my house or my daughters' body. Yet, it stayed with me.
My daughter needed new goggles now, so off I went shopping. Trying to find swimming goggles in Canada in September is probably akin to finding mittens in Arizona in June. Many stores later, I ended up at Canadian Tire. There in the swim section were the identical Little Mermaid goggles.
posted by LastHope at 9:35 AM
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