Cheery greetings hivians and to all ladies here in this community. You are welcome always to my blog! Hope you are all doing great?
I have come to the understanding that humans everywhere will always have an opinion about any matter. There's absolutely nothing that is done that someone somewhere is not forming an opinion about. Some persons even go as far as drinking paracetamol (pain killer) over other people's issues and business (this is a Nigerian adage)
Me 2 years after childbirth
I have had a fair share of people's opinions about my body stature that I have built a shock absorber against it and it no longer bothers me.
What's the one thing that people always misunderstand about you?
My answer is my appearance and body stature and might I add my age . From when I was very young, from what I could remember people have always complained and misunderstood my body stature. They will be like........
"Are you not eating well, why are you so skinny?" These and many more were what I heaed constantly from well meaning neighbours and relatives. Over time it led to people misunderstanding me especially age wise.
Me 3 years after childbirth
Where I grew up in, there was this unspoken rule about age and age grades. There were certain benefits one was not entitled to, if they were not a certain age, plus the age thing determined the level of freedom a child enjoyed and it determines the amount of responsibility that child would be allowed to undertake. Thus a child could be undermined and underrated just because that child is not of age irrespective of that child's potential. This was the kind of environment and setting I grew up in.
In truth, I looked really lanky despite my voracious appetite for food, no matter what I ate and how much food I ate, it didn't show. Other kids were plumpy and this made them have a kind of older look than me, despite that I was older than them. My young youthful facial looks did not help matters at all.
I remember being disqualified for a quiz competition held by a church because the judges felt I had not gitten to the listed age bracket. This hurt me and my mum had to prove that I was indeed within the listed age bracket, before the judges gave me my prize.
This led me to start putting on adult clothes but still it did not change the misunderstandings because I was so lanky and skinny that you would search for me inside the cliothes, hehe.
I remember one funny experience I had wirh a nurse at the hospital eleven years ago. I had already given birth to my daughter and she was one year and eight months old. I remember that I accompanied my mom to the hospital for a dialysis treatment,my baby was strapped to my back all the while I was in the ward watching my mom ans suddenly my daughter said to me mummy I want to come down and eat my snacks. I unstrapped her and placed her on a chair so that she could eat her snacks in peace. I was oblivious to the shocked expression on the nurses face. Then the nurse asked me.."is she your baby ?" L I replied "yes" and she was like "its a lie while I just kept smiling like a lottery winner. She took it a step further by bringing a tape rule (the ones used by fashion designers) to measure my waist because she wanted to ascertain that my waist span and pelvis could really carry the nine months bundle and push out a baby.
I and my daughter last year
Another funny experience I had was with a motorcyclist. I was coming back from work that day and I was really tired, moreover it was becoming dark and so I decided to use motorcycle transport (this is quite normal in my country, we call it okada). Due to the speed rate with which these cyclist drive, I hurriedly reminded the man to take it easy because my kid needs to see me alive. The motorcyclist laughed hard, at first I thought he was laughing at someone or something else but his continuous laughter made me realize that I was the cause and so I asked him what was funny and he said...small girl like you how can you give birth to a child at this yoing age. . To say I was flabbergasted was an understatement and something in me could not take it. We began to debate it lightly that I am a mother to which he oppossed vehemently. On getting to my compound, the sound of horns brought my daughter out of the house with her exclaiming mummy oyoyo, mummy oyoyo (mummy is back, mummy is back). As I alighted to pay the man his fare, I saw a remorseful look on his face and he apologized to me even calling me Ma. I laughed and told him not to worry about it as I took no offense by all he said.
I have a lot of experiences to share but time would fail me to pen them down here. If you are wondering if there's been any improvement on my appearance and stature, the answer is no, my pictures testify to it. I still get misunderstood untill I show my I.d card. The good thing is I have come to live with it and not get hurt by it, also the look of realization on the faces of those who misunderstood me, makes me feel good...so to speak, hahaha.
This is my response to the first question as posed by for the @ladiesifhiveweeklycontest.
All images used are mine.
Thanks for reading.....Shalom.