The song “Hair” on Lady Gaga’s album “Born This Way” spoke to me this morning on my beachwalk. This weekend, with my girls and their friends here, I’m glad my daughters never had to utter those words to my husband and me. We always told them (and showed them) that they were loved and accepted regardless of their beliefs or life choices – even if they were vastly different from ours.
Children are people, in their own right, not mini-me’s. They need to be listened to, respected, and told over and over again they are loved, no matter what. If more people would spend more time enjoying the person their child is growing up to be, and spend less time trying to package them according to their own wants and needs, we’d be able to cut the number of teen suicides in half.
I, myself, have enjoyed watching “who” my children were becoming. It was like getting a present each new year of their lives. Right now, I know of a mom who is alienating her daughter because she is gay and has a partner. So sad. This mom doesn’t know the person she’s missing out on knowing and I hope in time, things work out between them.
I am 58 years old and the “Leave It To Beaver” world I grew up in is long gone. I have to change with the times and ideas of the world my children grew up in. “I Am” also “My Hair”. I’m forever getting told by my friends that not many in our circle can pull it off. Hmmm…it took me until I was 50 to even try. I spent the better part of my life pleasing my parents, teachers, grandparents, and eventually my husband, that who I really was rarely ever surfaced until my kids were grown and almost gone. I never wanted my kids to grow up doing that. I’m thankful for artists like Lady G who encourage our youth to be themselves and realize God made them perfect just as they are. In a recent interview she said, “I’m Italian! I believe in ghosts and Jesus!”. I knew we had a winner right then and there.
And so, as another day goes by, it’s good to “be your hair”, and I have written.
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