SPOT ME

Last week I told my 7 year old daughter that I had run into her friend's mom. The response I expected and the one I got were scarily different. It went like this....
Me: "Hey, I ran into Serena's mom today."
Ella: "Were you wearing makeup?"
Me: "No, why?"
Ella: "Were you embarrassed?"
Me: "No. Why? Should I have been?"
Ella: Silence
Me: "Why do you care if I had makeup on?"
Ella: "I just think you should at least try to look pretty."

Follow that up with the next day's comment and you're ordering tubes of hydroquinone and a massive bag to pull over your head.
7:20 a.m.
Me: "Have a great day at school!"
Ella: "Will you have makeup on when I get home?"
Me: "I don't know, why?????"
Ella: "Well I just don't like having to see THAT (she is now pointing to the freckle (age spot) on my cheek."

Ouch. Ok, here's where I'm going to go with this. If she's going to have a critical eye about beauty, let it be about me and not her. Let her focus on my flaws instead of fixating on her own. Let her see that while that spot may not be the ideal shown in magazines, the face it rests on has enjoyed 40 years of living to earn it.