The Mirror

When we moved into our house, the kids were 10 months old. Most of the house was in great condition but the kids bathroom was a disaster zone, so we spent a bit of money and fixed it up. New tiles, a paint job - just a bit of a lick and polish really. One of the things we did was put in a bathroom mirror above the sink. DH and I installed that mirror ourselves (and by "installed" I mean bought it at IKEA, hammered a nail in the wall, hung the mirror and muttered "that'll do.") Anyway when we installed said mirror, we didn't think very hard about the placement of the mirror - so DH hung it on the wall in the exact spot where he could see his face in the exact middle of the mirror. Because of course you hang a mirror where you can actually see yourself in it, right?

Just FYI, my DH is 6'1".

Once the kids got old enough to use the bathroom themselves, we realised that when they stand on the floor, the mirror was actually several feet above their heads. So they couldn't see themselves in the mirror at all. When we realised this mistake, we then spent several minutes (over the course of several years) talking about how we should move the mirror down so the kids can actually see themselves in it.

It has not moved one iota.

At first we used to lift the kids up so they could see themselves - we used to stand them up and put their feet on the edge of the vanity. Then we used to hold them up with their legs dangling down in front of the vanity and their tummies squishing into the edge of it. Then they used to jump up to see themselves - which meant you had to be pretty quick and nimble to see anything at all. Then we got wise and bought them a little footstool to stand on. The stool was great - at first they could only see the tops of their heads, and then after a while they could see their foreheads, then their noses and at the moment we're at the stage where they can see most of their face in the mirror. If you remove the step stool, only the tops of their heads can be seen in the mirror. So the footstool is still very much necessary if you're to have any hope at all of seeing yourself.

Just the other day I said to DH (for the umpteenth time), "You know, we were so dumb putting that mirror there. We forgot it was kids who were going to look in it, not adults. We should totally move that mirror down." To which DH replied, "Yeah. I guess." and then he shrugged, which translated from DH-speak means, "Whatever. Why are we talking about this again? Can I please go watch Sci Fi Channel now?"

It occurs to me that my kids will be able to see their faces right smack in the middle of that mirror when they reach adulthood. And, once they are tall enough to see themselves, they probably will think hugging their Mum in public is embarrassing. They probably won't call me as often as I'd like, and won't come home for dinner often enough, and may have their own children and jobs and lives and worries. By the time my kids can see themselves in that mirror, our relationship will have changed dramatically -and one hopes it will be for the better. We will have survived teenage-hood - periods, voiced changing, body hair, and hormones which make me want to kill them nightly. We will have survived young adulthood - boy/girl friends, university applications, first jobs and trips overseas. By the time they can see themselves, they will probably think very differently about the person they see in that mirror.

On second thought, I think we should move that mirror - but we should move it UP.