So last night my girls are taking a bath and for once they are not fighting in the bath=). Nica credits this to me taking all the toys out so that her sister can not hit her with them or throw them at her!! I'm in the bathroom with just underwear and a tube top because I was getting dressed to go some where. Nica begins to tell me that she's been wishing on stars and none of her wishes are coming true?!?! I for one don't believe in wishes or giving the stars that kind of responsibility, but better her wish on stars than on me!! Anyhow, She is wishing that her skin was a different color, she would like to be white like mommy (as she points to my milky white belly)???? SERIOUSLY, how the heck do I respond to that? So before I give her my opinion I make sure that this isn't coming from school and it's not something she is getting teased about. I told her that every year I pay lots of money so that I can have the beautiful tan that she has naturally. I reminded her of how her sissy can't stay out in the sun as long as she can because she burns too easily. I told her that she is beautiful the way she is and I love her olive skin!!
The truth is I'm incredibly upset that my baby is so self conscious over something as silly as the color of her skin!!!! I do fake bake myself I will admit. I am very pale and very anemic so when I catch the slightest illness my skin turns a pasty blue and I tend to look deathly ill. Tanning keeps me looking healthy. When I don't tan some people think I'm Caucasian and when I do tan people think I'm Hispanic. Personally, I don't care what they think and I don't think it matters.
So that was last night. This Morning I'm at the hospital getting a treatment and another patient asked me if I was Jewish?!?!?(not the first time I've been asked this) Maybe it was my mood but his question just totally pissed me off! Here's the convo after the Hello, How are you:
Patient: Are you Jewish?
Me: Uh umm, Excuse me, come again
Patient: ARE YOU JEWISH?
Me: Why?
Patient: Oh because you look Jewish
Me: (chuckle) oh okay, wow, I wasn't aware they had their own look?!?!
Patient: So are you?
Me: Does it matter?
Patient: Well I don't want to insult you by calling you Jewish if your not
Me: (wtf, he did not just say that) well you don't have to call me "Jewish", you can just call me Janie, that is after all the name I introduced myself with.
Why ask? It's none of your business! I get this a lot with my girls. They look nothing alike and neither of them look like me either. Nica has darker skin, jet black hair, and these beautiful kinda slanted eyes that really stood out (and never opened) when she was a baby! And Jillyana is very very light complected, with light brown reddish hair, and lighter brown eyes. People come up to me in the mall or at restaurant and ask all kinds of questions. Are they sisters, are they yours, do they have the same dad, is one white and one Mexican, is her dad Chinese?!?!? Come on people!! First of all who the hell do you think you are to even ask me that? Second, does it even matter, why do you care?!? Does she have to be Mexican cause she's dark? Does she have to be white cause she's light? I guess I have to be Jewish because I'm light skinned with black hair?!?!
You don't need to know my back ground we are who and what we are, take it or leave it, regardless of the color of our skin. My 7 year old needs to be worrying about her grades and being a good person, she has more important things to worry about than whether or not this society will accept her for the color of her skin!!!
Have a lovely day! Here is a pic of Nica-Boo acting like a bunny this morning!
