Is she yours??

I get it. She does not look like me.

 Some kids just do not like their mothers. When people see me with Luke there is never a question as to the whether I am his mother. They just automatically assume that I am. However, recently, it seems to me that the complete opposite is true when I am out alone with Elina! People automatically assume that I am not her mother. We were at the playground the other day when one of the other mothers assumed that I was her nanny. Or maybe, she was the nanny. Who knows! I usually just assume that the caretaker, if a woman, is the mother unless she specifies otherwise. This has happened numerous times since that first incident.

I am not offended at all by the fact that people assume I am the nanny. In fact, I think it takes a lot patience and love to be in that line of work.  What astonishes me more is their response when I tell them that I am her mother - this woman said, and I quote, "Oh! She does not look like you at all! She must look exactly like her father. Did you marry a white man?"

It just so happens that Elina does look a lot like Rich and that he happens to be White, but that is besides that point. What if she didn't look like him? What if I was her Step-Mother? What if we had adopted her? What if we had used a surrogate? You get my drift. In this day and age, when there are so many possible ways to grow a family,  I am really surprised that people still assume that you are not the child's parent unless it resembles you in some way when it comes outward appearances - whether it be the color of one's skin, hair, eyes, stature, or build.

To me, she looks like neither of us. She looks like Elina - the perfect round face, chubby cheeked, green eyed version of herself! In the future, perhaps I should carry around her birth certificate to show that I am her parent!