Career options: be a mum with big boobs or be a tropical fruit?



My 3 year old and I were having a discussion this week

which led me to ask her:

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

No pause. No hesitation. Nada.

"I want to be like you, mummy"

*a little flutter in the heart a'happening right about now*

(Last week she wanted to have big boobies like me when she grew up.

Bear in mind that everything is relative when she says "big")

While my heart was flip-flopping, my mind was thumping...

...you know, that mind attached to my worrying, stressed personality...

...but why would you want to be me?

"Cos you get to stay up late and each as much icecream as you want"

???

 "Because, mummy, I see how much strength and stability, love and nurturing you bring to this household,

this family, and that is what I aspire to be able to give to others"

???

 "Because, for some really odd reason that I can't explain,  I find varicose veins, a flabby tummy, cellulite and pelvic floor muscles of dubious quality quite appealing"

???

"I dunno"(shrug)

???

I did ask her but no explanation was forthcoming.

Now I know that as a pre-kindy kid,

yet to really make her way out into the big, wide world,

as her mummy,

I am the person in her life.

And yes, next week she may well want to be

a marine scientist, a pop star

or heck, even a pineapple,
if she sees any more grown ups dressing up as fruit on Playschool.

(Admittedly, I can't see the pineapple population of the world lying awake at night

worrying why it was that someone wanted to be a herbacious, tropical  bromeliad like them)

So instead of analysing it to death,
I will take it for the 3 year old's take on her world that it is.

"I want to be like you, mummy.

because I am only three and a half

and you are my mummy

and you are my world"

That's the one that I am going to go with...

...even if it is really just to have my bust measurement.