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Be honest:  Are you the type of mom who shaves her legs every single day? Does the thought of stubble make your eye twitch and inflame your OCD tendencies? OR, are you a closet European? Is your razor rusty from UN-use between shaves? Are girlfriends braiding your shin hair during book club meetings?

 I admit these are extreme illustrations (bear with me; I’m employing the fine art of exaggeration). But I’m guessing we all fall somewhere along the spectrum between these two examples…

 Personally I’m closer to the European extreme. I never liked shaving my legs. And bless my husband for loving me anyway! I polled my 6 sisters and they all pretty much shave daily. So it’s confirmed—I’m weird this way.

Just so we’re clear; I rarely wear make-up, I’m not a fan of high-end, name-brand clothing, and I’ve been known to stay in my “work-out” clothes all day…even if I never enter actually enter a gym. (SIDENOTE: One year in high school I kept a running tally of days without hairspray—people, this was the 80s…think about that). I think it’s safe to say I’m not one to follow the crowd.

I won’t be jumping into the Botox game anytime soon either (needles are involved for pete’s sake!). My inner feminist is very much against breast augmentation—and believe me, after nursing 3 babies my girls are droopy!

I’m simply trying to embrace my age and near-40-ness with fierceness, not fear. For example, I need reading glasses and I’m okay with it.

All that being said… I have a personal hypocrisy to announce.

I’ve been finding grey hairs in my hairline for a few months. And I hate it! Last week, I marched into my stylist’s salon and said: “Help, I don’t want to start the hair-coloring-never-ending-cycle, with the hairline streak of grey creeping up every 6 weeks to give me away.” And she replied, “No problem, semi-permanent hair color is for you. It fades after 6 weeks and no one will know you jogged down the road of high maintenance in this one thing.”

Whew. I did it (the photo above was taken literally minutes after I left the salon). And, 6 weeks from now, I’ll let you know how it’s gone. Will I continue the hair color treatment or not? Hard to say. My stylist can’t remember my name—that’s how often I DON’T  schedule haircuts, much less keep up with the ball and chain of 6 week hair coloring appointments!)

Where are you on the mom-high-maintenance treadmill? Hair color, shaving, nails, Botox—where does it stop!?

Do you plan to keep up the crazy until you’re 80? (Me neither.)