One of the things that irritated me as a child (and even as an adult, if I’m honest) is the way my mother used to categorize my personality solely as a "middle-child Sagittarius". When I’d express an opinion, her response was usually "Oh! You are SUCH a Sagittarian!" This was usually also accompanied by an eye roll. When I’d get upset because my little sister was so irrational, I’d hear: "Yep! Typical Sagittarian!" And let’s be honest here … it still continues to this day.
I wasn’t the only one in the family who received this quick sum-up of my personality. My brother and sister were both blessed to be born under the sign of Taurus. When one of them ever displayed the slightest glimpse of stubborn behavior, it was quickly dismissed as "just the Taurus in them".
My youngest brother was born when I was seventeen years old. He is a Libra. Mom has calmed down a bit with him and the astrological motives assigned to him, but when I found out my daughter was going to be born under the same sign, she began preparing me for what to expect. Usually, it’s the same prognosis: "When raising a Libra child, be prepared for indecisiveness. If you are trying to determine what’s for dinner, give her two options at most. If you need her to clean her room, take the laundry to the basement, and pick out her clothes for school the next day be prepared for this to take five times longer than it should. It will result in her standing in the middle of her filthy room trying to decide which task to accomplish first."
I listen to this advice and ponder how I should go about ridding her of this behavior even though she is entirely too young to even know if this scenario will ever play itself out. If there’s one thing that drives me crazy, it’s indecisiveness. And I’ve decided (ha) that if she DOES have a problem in this area I will absolutely blame her father (who is a Pisces by the way). Making timely decisions (and the key word here is TIMELY) is not his forte. It usually comes to light when we are at a restaurant, and because my sense of integrity depends upon my ability to move about life in the most efficient manner possible this, obviously, creates conflict .
For example: at a sit-down restaurant I like to greet our server, order whatever we will be drinking and immediately peruse the menu to decide what I would like to eat. I hate the idea of causing someone to ask me more than once if I’m ready to order. His M.O. is to greet the server, ask about the drink specials, spend two minutes deciding on a drink, then move into dinner conversation without even glancing at the menu. After three minutes of trying to remain calm I usually nudge him toward deciding what he is going to order. At this time, he will begin looking at the menu. After sending the server away no less than three times he will declare that he is ready to order. The server will return, and at this time he will begin to second-guess his decision. The server will stand there, anticipating what his selection will be. He typically asks a few follow-up questions about the entree, hem & haw a few times, and assuredly order something completely different than he had originally decided upon.
And I sit there … exasperated!
When going through a fast food drive-thru the seconds seem to take hours as he looks, and thinks, and weighs the options of the menu which HASN’T CHANGED since the last time we were sitting there. All that poor Order Taker wants to do is ask us what we want, and get us away from their speaker box so they can serve the next hungry person who wants a cheeseburger & fries. But, the City Boy? Oh! The City Boy is just not a part of the Order Taker’s fan club. I think the day I witness him drive up and order his meal in less than five minutes I will faint from the mere shock to my system.
Anyway, going back to my daughter (who I pray does not suffer from the indecisiveness detailed above) seems to be pretty determined and knows what she wants at this 17-month stage in the game. I like this. She is stubborn and persistent (which I admire, despite the need to intervene at times) and I envision her taking life by the horns and making decisions all on her own in fierce succession.
Just to merely satisfy my curiosity I decided to Google some astrology/Zodiac information and came across this snippet from Let’s Panic:
Libra: The sign for Libra is the scales, which means that they enjoy weighing things. When Libras aren’t comparing and contrasting the weights of whatever things they like to weigh, they’re crying! Like, a lot! Libras love to sleep, but never for long enough, and when they’re awake they just want to be fed and held.
Oh Shit! Doesn’t look good! And the crying they reference? Jackpot! While my daughter is turning into an amazingly smart and fun Toddler, she was a tremendously fussy baby, and even still when I pick her up from the church nursery, I’ve never once seen her on the floor playing with the other kids … always being held. So, maybe there is a little truth to this whole Baby Astrology thing …
At the end of the day I’ve got a baby. She’s demanding, she’s fussy, she wants to go "out Siiii" (outside) and she wants to do it NOW!! Despite which month of the year she was born in, I think the crying is universal, the sporadic sleep patterns? NORMAL. The finnicky eating habits? NOR-MALLLLL! And it’s so worth it to see her little Libra personality in there growing more and more everyday.
And the humor found in irony wouldn’t be satisfied if I didn’t throw a little "typical Libra" in her face for the rest of my life anytime she spends more than three seconds deciding what to wear or eat.
