Recently, my mother told me a story of myself as a child. When strangers approached me and said things such as: “Isn’t she lovely?” or “What pretty hair you have!” I would innocently answer: “I know”.
My unassuming arrogance would take people aback, then everyone would laugh at the adorable curly-haired prima donna, enough to assuage my mother’s embarrassment. It would be easy to dismiss my younger self as a smug, precocious little brat, but it really just showed that when a child hears something enough times, they accept it as merely another fact of life.
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Content from our partners
