My "Beauty?" Mark

Growing up, I was told by the adult figures in my life that the predominant mole between my left nostril and upper lip was a sign of beauty. Something to be proud of. It linked me with Cindy Crawford and put my mole in the category of super model status. SO...I wore that mole with pride and never thought a thing of it.

Until kids entered my life. It started with our niece Anne. When she was about 3.5 years old, she was sitting on my lap, staring at my face. Very intently. I asked her what she saw and she quickly pointed and said, "Spider! It's a spider! Mommy has spiders too, but hers don't have hairs coming out of them." I soon realized that she was referring to my beauty mark. The eruption of laughter from all the adults in the room at that moment put the first ding in my mole's self esteem.

The second ding came from my dear pseudo niece Payton. She was standing in front of me at the tender age of 1.5, staring at my face. I immediately clammed up and asked her what she was looking at. Surely she would see the mole as something to be revered. She got very nervous, started pointing and said, "Spider! Spider!"

The third ding came yesterday. This was was a stinger. My darling child was sitting on the patio with me. We were discussing the trees, birds, flowers and all things lovely, when he stood up and looked at my face like it was the first time ever seeing me. I chose NOT to ask him what he was looking at, but he insisted on telling me. It went a little something like this.....Head cocked, eyes squinty, the finger appears, touches the beauty mark and his squeaky little voice says, "Mommy! Big booger on face! Big booger!"

Thus ends any thoughts that my Cindy Crawford feature is one to be fond of. Kids tell it like it is- there's no way around that. Now I just wonder how many adults in my lifetime have thought there was a big hairy spider or nasty booger on face. Not as hot as I thought.