I'm a Big Girl Now, See My Big Girl Shoes?

Today, I stopped my toilet from running.  Go ahead and be impressed.  No, really, go on. I’ll wait.

You know those kinds of girls who can change their own flat tire, drive across the country alone, and kill big scary spiders?

I am not that kind of girl. 

I’m the kind of girl you see out in the Walmart parking lot, walking around in the 100 degree weather with a cart full of groceries, crying because she can’t remember where she parked. 

I am a strange hybrid of grown-up and little girl.  In a lot of ways, I was born a fully grown woman.  I never watched cartoons.  I was not even that much for playing with toys (except for my Barbie and the Rockers, which, by the way, I’d totally play with right now if I had them).  I had younger siblings, and even at the age of ten years old, I was making sure they were fed dinner and did their homework.  In that way, I’ve always been grown up.



You know you want to play!



I am one of those rare girls in my generation who moved straight from her childhood home to her married home.  Jay and I got married at the tender age of 18, so I really never learned to be on my own.  I was never a single girl.

Jay is out of town this week, and before he left, I gave him a little list of things to do.  One of those things was to change the light bulb in our closet.  As the time approached for him to leave, and he had not gotten to the light bulb yet, I said to him, “Sweetie, don’t forget to change that light bulb.  Otherwise, I’ll be feeling around in the dark for clothes all week.”  A pretty evident third option never even occurred to me – I could change the light bulb myself!

I’m coming to realize that I may be too dependant on the wonderful man in my life (to be fair, Jay can count the number of times he’s done dishes in our 15 year marriage on his fingers and he still has to call me from the doctor’s office for help on filling out his family’s medical history. Don’t worry, I’m leaving a detailed brief for him in the event of my early demise). 

shaming independent woman everywhere
since 1997

Part of me loves that I have this great guy that I can count on (seriously, I rarely even have to fill my own gas tank), but I also love that feeling of accomplishment when I do things on my own.  I feel like shouting, “Look!  I’m a big girl now!”  So my goal is to learn (at least a little!) to be a do-it-yourself girl.  Every once in a while, I need to unload my own groceries, bring the trash out to the curb, and venture out on my own (did it all this week!). 

Of course, all these new jobs are going to keep me super busy, so I may have to lighten my regular load - Jay might want to start studying that brief now!