Mothers and Daughters
Dear internet, I don’t believe I had adequately acquainted you with my mother. Like any mother-daughter pair, we’ve gone through some strife, but thankfully we managed to survive my melodramatic teenage years with our relationship intact and stronger than ever. It probably doesn’t hurt that the older I get, the more I realize we’re pretty much the same person. We even look like clones.
Like mother, like daughter.
Also, she is funny. And smart. And quite possibly a spy. (I’m not kidding about that. And no, I still don’t know to this day.)
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.
- Oscar Wilde
Stylish, snarky, vivacious, beautiful, and intelligent, I want to be this woman when I grow up. Some hilarious exchanges beneath the cut.
Hope Is Not A Strategy
Teenaged JJ: (tossing aside a flatiron in frustration) I hate my hair!*
Mum: Then train your hair to behave.
Teenaged JJ: Train…my hair?
Mum: Yes! You can train hair, you know. It’s why my hair parts to the side; I trained it to do that.
Teenaged JJ: And how does one go about training one’s hair?
Mum: I parted it to the side every night after I took a shower. So comb your hair straight every night after you shower. It’ll start thinking like it’s straight.
Teenaged JJ: Mum, that doesn’t work for gay people and I doubt it will work for my hair.
*Until puberty hit me like a trainwreck, I had beautiful, thick, shiny straight hair. Then I got to thirteen and it staged a coup. My mother gave me the nickname sa-ja muh-ri, or “lion’s mane”. Now that I’ve hired a professional lion tamer, my hair’s learned to behave. A little.
Quarter Life Crisis
Mum: Happy birthday! You’re officially old.
JJ: Thanks, Mum.
Mum: No really, you’re an old maid now. Off the shelf.**
JJ: THANKS, MUM.
Mum: Oh, now that you’re 25, it’s time to start investing in some anti-wrinkle face creams.
JJ: (weeps into her coffee)
**Koreans (and other Asian countries) count the year you were in the womb when reckoning birthdays. My Korean age is 26. You are officially considered a spinster if you haven’t hitched yourself to a man by 25. And yes, my mother knows about Bear and no, she doesn’t actually subscribe to this notion. But she is a firm believer in anti-wrinkle creams.
She Knows Me Best
JJ: (on everyone going to grad school except her) The Inimitable Bex is getting her Masters in social work.
Mum: Oh good for her! I think she’ll be good at it. She’s very caring and a people person.
JJ: Yeah, she loves it so far.
Mum: Unlike you. Your idea of offering comfort is to give the person a swift kick in the ass.
I love her. I think Henry James wrote about Mum and not Noemie Nioche in THE AMERICAN.
Intelligent, unscrupulous, determined, and capable of seeing a man strangled without changing color.
LOL @ the last exchange!
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Sajah-muri? LOLOLOL. Your mother cracks me up.
And she’s sort of right about training the hair thing. I’ve trained my fringe to part in a particular way (and I did it without realising it!) and now it’s practically natural!
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Me too, Tara.
Love that Oscar Wilde quote. And yay for mommies! I dunno if it’s how all mothers and daughters are, or most Asian mothers and daughters, or what, but I feel the same way about my mommy as you do about yours. No one can destroy me, or build me up, the way she can. And nobody knows me better.
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Yes, but can you train wavy hair so it becomes straight? If so, please let my hair know. I’ve been trying for years.
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Hah! LOL! I envy you your mother!
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Wow you and your mum really look alike! LOL @ anti-wrinkle cream. My mum said the same thing too!
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