My Violet

Anyone who knows any old Asian woman knows that they have a tendency to speak forthright. And that is putting it mildly. A little chubby? She'll tell you. Got some lip hair? She'll point it out. Can't find a husband? She'll give all sorts of absurd advice. Just got married? She'll ask you why you not pregnant yet? You getting old. Time to start using eye cream, and it goes on and on.

So needless to say growing up in a small community of Thai/Laotian people I heard some utterly mortifying and humiliating comments. Being a chubby Asian kid ain't that easy I tell you. Here are some of my favorites(roughly translated) :

oh, you mom so pretty! you look just like your dad.
 
 why you walk like a horse?

you talk too much for a girl.

your eyes too slanty.

oh, at least you not too dark like your dad.

you eat too much. get a smaller rice bowl.



So needless to say being Americanized as I am I spent some money and got a really good therapist. I also learned quickly to have some thick skin and a sense of humor. Most of the "aunties" now are more concerned with my assessment of their handbags to realize I still talk too much for not just a girl BUT for any human being or that I still eat large portions of their lad nah or larp gai. And my mother is far too busy doting on her "perfect" grandchildren to notice that I move around the house like a horse.

I promised myself that my daughter would be nothing like me. She would be delicate and demure. She would eat delicate foods and eat them daintily. She would speak only after careful thought and in a birdsong voice.  She would not run around like a horse. Well...I got her instead :

I couldn't be more proud!!! She is full of sass, has an opinion about everything, keeps up with her brothers and holds her own. And there hasn't been a plate of food that she hasn't fully enjoyed! And that is her idea of smiling for the camera. I love her more than this world could ever understand and truth be told, she is exactly the little girl I wanted all along.