There's Always More Than One Side
Sometimes a very simple conversation takes you back a bunch of years and makes you see a whole new side of an issue.
To explain, I have to go back. Way back. Alexis was born with a strawberry hemangioma on her forehead.
It started out faint, got darker, and then mostly faded. She still has it, but you almost have to know what you're looking at to notice it. There were conversations about having it removed when the fading stopped, but in the end, we left it alone.
I have never once doubted that decision.
Until this week.
This week Alexis handed over a note from school with a look of total and complete annoyance on her face. It said that she needed to take a baby picture of herself to school for an assignment.
No big deal, if you ask me.
If you ask her, though, the story is different.
"I hate taking baby pictures to school," she said.
"Hate" is a very, very strong word in our house. Alexis rarely uses it, so I was taken aback.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because everyone always asks about my birthmark," she replied.
She's not embarrassed about it, she just finds the questions annoying. Or so she says. As our conversation continued, I vividly remembered the woman I ran into one time who had an older kid with a very similar strawberry hemangioma. The woman had decided to have it removed once the kid was old enough, but she also removed evidence of it long before the kid was old enough. She had Photoshopped every single photo of her daughter EVER so that the strawberry hemangioma wasn't there.
At the time, I couldn't even begin to imagine.
Now, though? I kind of get it. Just a little.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Reader Comments (3)
You got there before I could comment... If it makes the girl uncomfortable, I'd totally photoshop it out.
I wonder how the school handles it if a child doesn't have a baby picture? There were several students at our primary school who came here from New Orleans with only the clothes on their backs.
The photo of her wearing sunglasses in the link to the old post is beautiful. Maybe she could take that one to school?