Being A Parent Has Made Me Very Superstitious

I have never been an overly superstitious person, that is, until I had children.

As a push present (don’t shoot me I didn’t come up with the term) my daughter’s father bought me a Cartier Love Bracelet and gave it to me while I was in the hospital. The bracelet comes with a screwdriver and that pretty much is the only way you can get the bracelet off — when you unscrew the two screws that keep the bracelet on your wrist. I lost the screwdriver a long time ago. But that bracelet has been on my wrist for almost a decade now, not because I can’t find another screwdriver because of course I can. It’s just that I put the bracelet on the day she was born and my daughter is now turning ten in October.

I don’t take the bracelet off because I love it so much (though I do) but because I have this feeling that something bad is going to happen to my daughter if I dare DO take it off. Even when I was in the hospital giving birth to my second, almost a year ago, and they demanded I take off all jewelry I refused. (Plus there was no screwdriver in sight and it was kind of an emergency C-section situation so they let it go.) I refuse to take it off during massages, even though it would feel better, or if it doesn’t match with an outfit, or if I’m taking a boxing class, even though it is very painful to have the bracelet embedded into my arm by the tight boxing glove. I will never take this bracelet off. It will be on me in my grave.

My fiance recently bought me a second Love Bracelet for the birth of our son. This too will remain on my wrist forever, because, as I’ve said, I have become superstitious since I’ve become a mother. Just like my daughter, once the bracelet was on my wrist I just know that I won’t take it off for fear that something will happen to my son.

When I travel without my children, I now do really strange things before getting on a plane. I’m completely embarrassed to admit this, but I have a ritual now which includes touching the walls leading onto the plane 20 times and then I MUST touch the outside of the plane, with both the front of my hand and the back of my hand, before boarding. I have no idea why I started this, or why this is what I think I have to do for my children to be okay (or for me to not die on a plane and leave my children with no mother) but I do know that it all started after the birth of my daughter.

I, too, make these somewhat crazy calls to my daughter’s father before travelling, saying things like, ”If I die on this plane, please make sure Rowan is taken care of and that she is always happy.”

My daughter’s father will respond, ”You’ll be fine!” to which I then send him a text with my ”will.”

Each and every time I get on a plane I do this. He thinks it’s funny, but, really, that’s how superstitious I’ve become.

When I travel with my children, I don’t have to do any of these things. I also no longer leave my purses on the floor, because apparently that can bring bad news, and I now have something red in every room in my house, because that is supposed to bring good luck.

When people say, ”Oh your daughter is so sweet and talented,” or, ”Your son is so adorable,” I smile and say “Thank you,” and then I have to knock on wood 16 times (frantically finding a table or a tree) because I want them to remain sweet and talented and adorable. Yes, 16 times. Why that number? I have no friggin idea, but I can tell you that before I had children, I didn’t need to touch planes before I got onto them, I left my purses on the floor, and I didn’t have to knock on wood.

It does SOUND like I’m crazy, but these are just little superstitions, kind of like sports players who have their own superstitions before big games. It makes no sense really but there I am, just like them. When I make a wish (let’s say over an eyelash or a birthday candle they are always about”¦I can’t say it aloud, or even write it but I’m sure you all know what my wishes are about.)

I am not OCD. I do not wash my hands 27 times in an hour. I do not have to turn the light switch on and off 50 times before I leave a room. I just have a couple strange things I do now that I have children. I know in theory all these things are somewhat ridiculous, or ARE ridiculous, but, hey, they say that children suck the brain cells out of you (True that!) My children have changed my brain. But at least, like one of my friends, I don’t read my children’s horoscopes every day. Now THAT is crazy!

(photo: Djomas / Shutterstock)