NO...I am NOT 18!!!!

This is something that has really been annoying me lately. I'll start by saying that I am 26, and my daughter will be 2 next week.
I am getting so sick of hearing people say, "YOU have a child, and she's 2!!! I thought you were about 18 years old!!!" I work in retail, so more often than not these people don't KNOW me! They are just passing judgement because I happen to LOOK younger than I am.
Of course many people tell me that I will appreciate this when I AM older,but right now its just so annoying!
Yesterday at work I was talking to a customer who happens to be a frequent shopper, and she was asking me how DD was doing. Well, my co-worker informed me later that the 2 other women in the store turned to eachother and one said, "look, that young girl over there has a child, and she's 2!!!" And the other woman replied "Noooo... she's much too young she couldn't possibly be a mother".
The best part was that I forgot to wear my wedding rings yesterday, so they probably had even more to "gasp" about when they left!
I decided that my new come-back is going to be," Oh, I wish I was 18, I'm really only 15!" This should win me a few horrified stares!!!:o
Its not that I mind looking young, it just bugs me that people would so openly share their negative opinion. I mean what if I were 16,17,18...who are they to judge me and my ability as a parent?

[brigmaman]

Some people have nerve. So I wonder what they think when they see you, Joanne and I together. I think we all look pretty young!
Jay got this type of reaction at work when he first started working in schools. When he told people he had a son, they admitted that they guessed he was straight out of college. It really used to burn him up that he'd get carded when ordering a beer at a restaurant. For a while he wouldn't order because he didn't want to hear it.

I guess you guys just still look young and hip!

Ha ha! Today when we meet up, let's all wear our "I heart Clay Aiken" t-shirts and pop gum. :)

[JennSimm]

Im 33 and I still get judged! If I go to a store to buy wine or beer, they usually card me. I can have all 5 of my kids with me, and the older ones are yelling...mom, can I have gum, mom, can I have a magazine, mom, can i...well you get the picture! I tell the cashier (normally a teen themselves) that I started having kids when I was 9. That normally shuts them up! It does get old, but there is nothing like looking young enough to get carded when you are in your 30's!!

Jennifer

OMG I totally relate!!!!! I was young when I had DD, I was 19, but I was married and I was/am a good mom. I STILL look young. I got carded for cigarettes when I used to smoke up until I was almost 30, alcohol too. I used to get the most awful looks when I had my DD in tow and was PG with DS at the age of 20. Nobody could believe I was as old as I was. They all thought I had to be an unwed teenage mother! Of course, now, at 34, I still get that, "There's no way you have two teenagers!" Its nice to hear I still look young, but when I was younger, it drove me crazy!!!!

And, yes people do judge your ability as a parent when you are a young one, as I was. The only people that treated me like a parent were my kids pediatricians. Most other people would try to take over for me with everything even if I was doing just fine. Strangers would pity me cuz I was young. AND, the last two months of both pregnancies I did not wear my wedding rings because my fingers were swollen. I wore them around my neck on a chain. I had to get them sized up eventually and I did used to get the stares from the older ladies like, "That poor girl, so young, and a single mother too. What a shame!"

People will judge no matter what! So, I try not to be that way!!


Kelly

[C99]

>what if I were 16,17,18...who are they to judge me and my
>ability as a parent?

Probably people who think that 16, 17 or 18 is too young an age to become a parent.

I remember being in my early to mid-20s and meeting some of my mom's friends, who usually would ask me where I had elected to go to college or when I was starting back for the year. When I was younger, it annoyed me. When I was closer to mid-20s, it amused me. Now, I WISH someone would misjudge my age to be younger than it is. :)

i can also relate too. i'm in my mid 30s and people also comment that "i look so young". my son is 1.5. that also seems to support their theory although my husband and i have been married for 7 yrs. i don't think it's a compliment in my profession unless they think i'm doogie houser (sp?)

I look 18~~!!! hA HA HA ill be 25 this year and ppl still card me if i go out..LOL Yeah ive gotten the "but your just a baby look"...And the "ohhh that is so sad" pitty fest...

Right there with you on the judging thing...urrgghh it annoys me...

[californiagirl]

I'm 39 and still get carded occasionally. My godmother got carded into her 50s! (Of course, she was still shopping for jeans in the boys department, being a tiny little narrow-hipped woman.) The worst time was when I was walking on the beach with a guy I was dating, I was in my early 30s and he in his early 40s, and somebody asked him if he wanted to buy a balloon for his granddaughter.

It's too early to tell whether the baby will up people's estimate of my age, but as DH is 14 years younger than I am, he lowers it enough so it will probably all average out...

Ah just tell them that your brother is your girl's daddy and that is perfectly normal back where you is from!!! If you do this while strumming "Dueling Banjos" give yourself 50 extra bonus points.

Then look them in the eye and tell them that the face lift obviously failed big time and you hope they got a handsome settlement from the lawsuit.