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Teen Mom for Life

© Trula Breckenridge

Recently my daughter and I were at the library, looking for books for her summertime reading list. Spotting a friend from school, she dashed over to talk to her. After a few minutes of high-pitched whispered conversation, full of the giggling and pushing that is so typical of middle-school girls, she rushes over to tell me she and her friend wanted to hang out in the pre-teen section and look for their books. Since she'll be in the seventh grade in the fall I figure she's old enough to hang out with a friend at the library without me trailing along. So I say okay and tell her where I will be.

I'm checking out the New Releases section. As I thumb the pages of a hot-off-the-press book I notice an older woman walking by me repeatedly. She looks 45, maybe 50. She looks at me quizzically and smiles. I smile back and return to reading the book jacket, wondering why she seems so familiar. As I look up I see her going to the middle school section and talking to one of the librarians. She has a loud, carrying voice. She asks the librarian if it's okay for her daughter and a friend to stay unsupervised at the library while she goes to do some shopping, as she is afraid they might get on the computers. She tell's the librarian she was looking for her daughter's friend's mom but couldn't find her. Now, keep in mind that I am slow, the lightbulb didn't go off at this point. I reasoned to myself that she couldn't be talking about me, she walked right past me several times. We had never met but my daughter looks just like me, she is like my little twin.

My daughter and her friend rush up and the woman tells her she couldn't find me. My daughter says, "I told you she was in the New Releases section, there she is, right there!" and points to me. Now they are all looking at me, my daughter, her friend, her friend's mother, the librarian. I walk over and introduce myself, smiling nicely though all the while fighting down anger. For god's sake, I'm nearly 30, I think. This shit is getting old. I release what I hope is an inaudible sigh as the friend's mother exclaims over my youth and how she didn't think I could possibly be the mother of a 12 year old, she had noticed how much I looked like my daughter but had assumed we were sisters. She then said she had almost asked me where our mother was at.

The copyright of the article Teen Mom for Life in Teenage Mothers is owned by Trula Breckenridge. Permission to republish Teen Mom for Life in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.