parents – Purple Plaid Boots

It’s a world into which I don’t fit. It’s a world that seems strange to me. Smart phones and bustle aren’t me. This isn’t what I want to write about though. I’m tired of phones. I could describe the ladies in the dressing room talking about stereotypical things. Yes, the word ‘stereotypical’ was spoken by a lady in the dressing room. It’s her word, not mine. Funny but I think that just made her a stereotypical upper-middle class, white suburban mom who says, “Honey, don’t take off your shoes”. Her voices is playful, so different from the voice that I use with kids and dogs. I call it my drill instructor voice. This woman has a voice that seems to want to be a friend more than issuing a command. Her vocal style is foreign to me.

Watching these ladies in the dressing room with their children is a study of a wild animal in it’s habitat. I observe them at the pool with thier child as they try to avoid the germs in the dressing room. They insist that their children stand on benches and don’t touch the floor. They must always wear their flip flops and never, ever touch the floor. They warn other moms. They give advice on avoiding the germs. As though standing on the bench will avoid floor germs when everyone else is standing on the benches to avoid floor germs. The floors germs have just become bench germs.

I ignore them. These germs don’t worry me. Far better to just make your peace with floor germs. Call it building immunity and buy some athlete’s foot fungus spray.