Y Ddraig Goch

May 29 2025 - Gaga Gaga

Prompt: "I'm not here to be perfect. I am here to be real." Lady Gaga Gaga Write about this in your Blog entry today.

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Ah wise words from the Gaga Gaga… A surprisingly frequent occurrence. It’s also a conversation I have with my kids, especially my daughter. In fact we were having it only yesterday on the way to school.

My son (who is seven) announced he wished that he was rich (me too, me too). His rationale is that then he’d have more friends and people would like him. Which is kinda heartbreaking that a seven-year-old thinks that money is the root to happiness and friendship. This sparked a whole conversation on how true friends – the ones that truly mattered – don’t care if you are poor or rich. And that a lot of rich people probably feel lonely, even when they have a lot of people around them, because it's hard to know if people like them or their money. How hard it must be not to know who to trust, or to trust very few, and maybe never really being yourself because of that. We all decided we would rather be poor and have friends, than rich and lonely – thank goodness I must be doing something right!

This led on to my daughter announcing that she wanted to be perfect at x, y, z – there was a list - and how frustrating it was when she isn’t. When she cannot do something that her friends can. When she makes a mistake or messes up (especially in front of her peers). She takes it so hard. Part of it is embarrassment and part of it is because she thinks there is a perfect image of who she should be and what she should be able to do. It’s an “image” that her and her friends discuss at length – this person is popular because of this, she has friends because of this – seriously she is never going near IG or social media.

She is nine – NINE! She has very little idea of who she is yet. She’s only just started that journey. She cannot see how freaking amazing she is. It’s something we, as her parents, constantly remind her of. That it is ok not to be like everyone else. That it’s more important to be herself. To be real. Honest. Genuine. Not take everything so seriously. That mistakes are ok. They are how we learn. And that she never has to hid from us. We are ok if she falls - we'll just help her stand back up and dust herself off. We tell her that she is perfect to us. That we couldn’t and don’t want her any other way - though I do tell her it would be nice if she didn't take the micky out of me for my accent quite so much... I'm British and sound very southern English and I am surrounded by Australian (it happens we live in Melbourne...).

She listens. She smiles. She forgets and then needs to be reminded. Especially about laughing at the way I say, "bottle of water" - honestly her impression is decidedly more Cockney than the reality. This is going to be a never-ending circle for the next couple of years.

What’s funny is that she can’t see the looks others give her. The admiration from her friends. That fact that they trust her with their secrets. The way people stare at her when she instinctively reaches out to help people – when they fall, or drop things, or knock things over – she doesn’t think twice about it, she just reacts. The stunned silence and reaction from those around us as they watch her like and endangered species, makes me smile - because yep that's my baby and she's amazing. She also cannot see all these 9, 10, 11-year-old boys that pop up around her randomly to say “hi” with puppy and moon eyes… which I am incredibly grateful for.

I am glad that there are artists like Lady Gaga Gaga – that help people remember the importance of being honest and true to themselves.