Katie's First Pimple

Katie got her first pimple today.  My baby's growing up!  She's only seven, which seems too young to start getting pimples, but I know it's not.  I was six when they began sprouting on my face, so I'm prepared for the experience with my daughter.

My mom didn't know what to do with me other than teach me how to cover them up with makeup.  She bragged that when she was a teenager, while her friends suffered with them, she could fall asleep with full makeup on and she still never got pimples.  I inherited what we called "bad skin" from my dad.  His face and neck are covered in pock-mark scars from the early acne he had.  Dad and I were not close, so I never asked for his advice or expected his sympathy.

One pimple does not mean Katie's doomed to a face-full of cysts in the near-future.  Perhaps it's just a reaction to the oily sunscreen she's been wearing a lot lately.  But if she does end up inheriting my skin type, I will try my hardest never to refer to it as "bad skin".

I used to complain about my skin all the time until I had a kid and realized every negative thing I say about myself influences the way Katie feels about herself.  I read somewhere that kids don't take their parent's advice, but they follow their example.  If I want my kid to feel good about the way she looks, I have to cut out all the negative self-talk crap.

I want to share the photo with you even though I'm generally hesitant to publicly share photos of my kid on the Internet.  I share tons of photos of Katie with my friends via social media.  As long as I know you're a real person and I have ways of contacting you, and I trust you're not doing creepy things with images of my kid, I'm cool with sharing photos with you on Facebook.  But to keep my baby as safe as possible in this digital age, I like to block off her eyes in photos I share on my blog.  Nothing personal.  If you're the real deal and not a creeper, send me a friend request on Facebook where you can see the full image.

Katie's first pimple, top-center of her forehead

Especially since I'm so anxiety-ridden, I'm proud that Katie's confident enough to not only wear her hair back in a headband to show off her first pimple, but to let her mom take a picture of it.  I remember feeling mortified upon seeing my first pimple show up in my first-grade school picture.  Not Katie.  She wants to show off what a big girl she's becoming.

Hooray for confident kids!