Mother’s new tattoo troubles daughter

Dear Diane: I am a 32-year-old married woman with a wonderful husband and two precious children. My life with them couldn’t be better. My problem is with my mother.

Mother is in her late-50s. Until recently, she had always been conservative, a strict-but-fair disciplinarian (in my childhood) and a pillar of good manners. In my entire life, I never heard my mother utter a profane word.

Last month, Mother got a TATTOO.

Not some wimpy little heart near the ankle, but a very big tattoo of a unicorn on the upper right portion of her chest. The back half of the unicorn covers the upper half of her breast.

Diane, I am shocked. This is the same woman who, when I was 12, refused to let me have my ears pierced because I “would look like a prostitute.”

My father doesn’t seem fazed by this at all. In fact, he joked that by the time Mother turns 70, gravity will turn the unicorn into a giraffe.

What’s gotten into these people? They’re grandparents, for goodness’ sake!

— Gobsmacked in Grover’s Mill

Dear Gobsmacked:

It sounds like your mother is having a little midlife crisis. It’s not unusual for men and women, once they’ve hit middle-age, to experiment with new things — usually to recapture the fun and excitement they had in their youth, before mortgages, children and other responsibilities.

Leave the Old Girl alone and quit the drama. It’s just a tattoo. She can dress so it doesn’t show or even have it removed when she tires of it.

And just think: Now YOU can finally get your ears pierced!

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