A video a day 3

I grew up with two brothers who were much older than I was. Because of that, I thought everything they did, I could do. And possibly better. Who knew that because I was a girl, I couldn't pee standing up, I couldn't go to St Andrew's and I couldn't play rugby. It was also frowned upon when I ran outside barefooted, trekked through storm drains and fought with boys and not realising that I wasn't supposed to be doing all that.

Fortunately or unfortunately, despite those early years, I grew up disliking being in the sun for long periods of time, loathed being stuck dirty, would not be caught dead peeing anywhere that did not have paper and a flush and feeling abused if I didn't have access to beauty treatments.

At this point in time, my daughter resembles the earlier me. She loves mucking around rain water, drain water, dry sand, wet soil, grass, pebbles, basically anything that can be found in the garden or outside. 2 days ago, her grandmother flipped because she was crunching down on a dried leaf. Yesterday, our helper flipped because she was pretend drinking out of a cup that she used to dig up earth from the garden. Yes, she is quite at home with getting her hands dirty. I keep being nagged to stop it but I am reluctant to. Primarily because I spent much of my childhood outdoors and all the nagging of wearing footwear and being proper falling to deaf ears while now, those who nagged me then tsk at me now for having too many pairs of shoes and not being willing to go on vacation if accommodation wasn't at least 4 stars.



So at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter if Baby J thinks the best thing in the world is to climb all over the place, pour water into sand and then stir it around with her finger and get her hands and feet streaked with gate grease while everyone else thinks she should be playing with tea sets. Because she'll grow out of it and when she does and is made fun of, at least she can categorically state that she's done more things than those making a big fuss out of it. I know I do. And I do it with great glee and pride.


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