Feeling like a million bucks

I think every mom has a day, once in awhile, where they feel like they look like a million bucks. Their hair worked out perfect that morning and they're dressed in a brand new outfit with matching super-cute shoes. This combination causes them to walk with their heads a little higher than usual, with a confident smile on their face.

Those days are rare for me, but they do come around once in a blue moon. For one day, I forget the wrinkles and spare tire, and I feel youthful and pretty again. I think to myself that I'm not "old," I still got it. Yes, birthing three babies might have made me wear more elastic than I used to, and just might have caused more sagging in areas than were there before, but not today! Heck no, today I feel like I might just give Cindy Crawford a run for her money.

However, as what happens when you're a mom, my delightfully honest children bring me right back down to reality. As I walked proudly down the sidewalk the other day with my three girls, feeling uniquely young and sassy, I waved to a passing friend, only then to have my 9-year-old blurt out laughing and pointing, "The back of your arm wiggles when you wave!"

Gee, thanks for pointing that out, honey. So much for feeling young and sassy. If I didn't already have enough days where I criticize my own aging body, now I have three girls in the house who feel it's their responsibility to point out all my physical flaws. They've really been on a roll lately and I'm starting to get quite a complex about it. I'm thinking I have one of two options: hit the gym and price out some plastic surgery options, or simply thrown in the towel and give up ... let nature take its course.

A few months ago my oldest daughter was sitting at breakfast with me early in the morning looking at a professional photo of me all dressed up. She'd stare at me wolfing down my cereal, with my morning, crumpled face and messy hair for a few seconds and then glance back down at the picture.

She did this a few times and then said, "I just don't know how you can go from looking like this to looking like that?" I sat there awkwardly in silence. I know I'm no beauty queen in the morning, but to her, I must look like Quasimoto.

Then a few weeks after that, when my wounded confidence was beginning to heal, I was hit again from the 4-year-old. I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup and doing my hair at the counter while she was taking a bath. It got kinda quiet for a second before she pointed out, "You got lots of veins on your legs!"

I nodded, "Thank you! Yes, that's what happens to mommies sometimes, especially when they have their third baby in their mid-30s." I then blamed her for the veins because I didn't have them with the first two girls. She then asked, "Is that why you have so many moles too?"

Wow! That was just about enough to do me in. Was it worth finishing the hair and makeup or should I have just covered myself from head to toe, because apparently I was too veiny and moley to appear out in public.

I've realized, though, it's not going to get any better until they themselves become mothers.

The older they get, especially with teenage years right around the corner, the worse they're going to get with their comments and disapprovals.

I know I will only get uglier to them, rarely be dressed in an outfit they approve of, and embarrass them with my jokes or statements.

I remember in high school having to help my own mom dress so I wasn't embarrassed, so I guess what comes around goes around. It would be nice, though, to have one day every now and then, where I could feel like a million bucks without someone reminding me that I'm not.

Every mom deserves at least one day!