Being a woman is complicated. There are so many things that embody a woman's essence. Hormones? Full moon? The morning sun? But still nobody really knows what makes a woman the woman that she is. And for now, this is not really about the glory of our womanhood. Being a woman myself, I still wonder why I can be such a bitch sometimes, and how some women can also be one under a nice blue sky.
The subject on feisty women came up when I happen to bump into a number of mommies in their best environment: bringing the kids to school. Like Hazel's post on the same thought, you begin to wonder why as busy as it is to be a mother, they still have time to gossip. Or as adults, can still be like the highschool bullies. And I don't even have a child to bring to school, I just happen to live just beside one.
I had to bring Vidar to the cat lady for our 4 day trip to Switzerland & I was running a bit late. Carrying the 7 kilo Vidar in his box, I stepped out of the house & noticed right away one mommy sharply looking at me from head to toe. Probably not a cat lover? As I approach them, four mommies in total with three kids scattered around the 1 meter wide passage way to the parking, nobody budged an inch. Can I just shove this kid a bit to the side with Vidar's box? And as I was ready to step ahead, one mommy just happen to drop the pacifier she was holding in front of me, slowly picked it up & said, "Ooops." I glared at her face & she looked away. After almost a half hour, I came back finding them now in the park, engaged in what I can assume, if not the intent morning gossiping, are brainstorming for the best school system for their children. Fine by me as long as they don't block our way.
I remember one time I went with a friend to pick up her kids from school. As we were walking from the parking, I noticed a group of mommies who stopped speaking as we passed by in front of them & literally gave us the side eye from head to toe. I asked my friend what that was all about & she said it's nothing new. She said they've always been like that then we shrugged them off. But the side eye. I haven't seen one since I was 14.
One teacher in the school here would take her cigarette break just in front of our house. And everytime I happen to go out when she's there, I'd say bonjour & she would just wryly smile back at me. I guess she was not too happy when I expressed my slight discontent of her closing my window shutters, for a few times, to sit on our bench out front. The other day, Charlotte, our neighbor's daughter saw me pass by in front of the school & asked me if she could introduce me to her friends, five of them all huddled by the gate, as "la dame qui parle en anglais" (the woman who speaks english). With all the commotion, I saw that the teacher saw us from afar & the next day, for the first time, she magically acknowledged my courtesy with a bonjour & a shy smile.
As a girl, I've done all the side eyes, the gossiping, the mocking but as a woman, I don't really remember doing those when I'm out with my girlfriends. The mommies I know are even so busy that they don't even have time to loiter around the schools. It's not really a French thing or an asian thing. It is just simply being part of a woman. I actually admit that when my husband asks me what's even going on in my head, I would stop & actually do wonder.
But I do wonder how different women from different cultural backgrounds can differ from one other. Can a Filipina be so different from a Thai? Or the French woman from a Spanish? Women are really complicated. Even their roar is complicated.
The subject on feisty women came up when I happen to bump into a number of mommies in their best environment: bringing the kids to school. Like Hazel's post on the same thought, you begin to wonder why as busy as it is to be a mother, they still have time to gossip. Or as adults, can still be like the highschool bullies. And I don't even have a child to bring to school, I just happen to live just beside one.
I had to bring Vidar to the cat lady for our 4 day trip to Switzerland & I was running a bit late. Carrying the 7 kilo Vidar in his box, I stepped out of the house & noticed right away one mommy sharply looking at me from head to toe. Probably not a cat lover? As I approach them, four mommies in total with three kids scattered around the 1 meter wide passage way to the parking, nobody budged an inch. Can I just shove this kid a bit to the side with Vidar's box? And as I was ready to step ahead, one mommy just happen to drop the pacifier she was holding in front of me, slowly picked it up & said, "Ooops." I glared at her face & she looked away. After almost a half hour, I came back finding them now in the park, engaged in what I can assume, if not the intent morning gossiping, are brainstorming for the best school system for their children. Fine by me as long as they don't block our way.
I remember one time I went with a friend to pick up her kids from school. As we were walking from the parking, I noticed a group of mommies who stopped speaking as we passed by in front of them & literally gave us the side eye from head to toe. I asked my friend what that was all about & she said it's nothing new. She said they've always been like that then we shrugged them off. But the side eye. I haven't seen one since I was 14.
One teacher in the school here would take her cigarette break just in front of our house. And everytime I happen to go out when she's there, I'd say bonjour & she would just wryly smile back at me. I guess she was not too happy when I expressed my slight discontent of her closing my window shutters, for a few times, to sit on our bench out front. The other day, Charlotte, our neighbor's daughter saw me pass by in front of the school & asked me if she could introduce me to her friends, five of them all huddled by the gate, as "la dame qui parle en anglais" (the woman who speaks english). With all the commotion, I saw that the teacher saw us from afar & the next day, for the first time, she magically acknowledged my courtesy with a bonjour & a shy smile.
As a girl, I've done all the side eyes, the gossiping, the mocking but as a woman, I don't really remember doing those when I'm out with my girlfriends. The mommies I know are even so busy that they don't even have time to loiter around the schools. It's not really a French thing or an asian thing. It is just simply being part of a woman. I actually admit that when my husband asks me what's even going on in my head, I would stop & actually do wonder.
But I do wonder how different women from different cultural backgrounds can differ from one other. Can a Filipina be so different from a Thai? Or the French woman from a Spanish? Women are really complicated. Even their roar is complicated.
