She Found My Hoodies, And I Found a Moment I Didn’t Expect

In this episode of The Family of One, I talk about something I didn’t think I’d experience at this stage of parenting: my 8-year-old daughter finding two of my comfiest hoodies and wearing them like they were made for her.
I’m 49 years young, a generous size, and honestly thought we’d be sharing hair clips and scarves, not actual clothes. But there she was, cozy and confident in my hoodies, and I was unexpectedly emotional about it.
It reminded me that some parenting moments arrive quietly, wrapped in softness and surprise.
🎧 Tune in for a warm reflection, a few laughs (yes, I said I was 59 at the start, oops!), and a gentle reminder that it’s never too late for sweet surprises.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

Hey amazing only child moms, I'm Paul Comic, your part-time working mom friend who loves Yahweh, family, and fun. Welcome to the Family of One who reach your joys and adventures of raising an only child. Expect relatable stories, parenting laughs, and faithful tips. Let's make small family life enjoyable. Woo! Hi, my name's Four and welcome back. So let's start. I want to do something different. I typically would say a big thank you to my listeners who had listened to the last episode. So I give a shout out at the end, but I wanted to do this in the beginning. So to my listeners who listened to the last episode from Avignon Viclaus, Houston, Texas, and then Austin, Texas, Sinsbury, Connecticut, and Goshen, Indiana. I just want to give a shout out to you all for listening and supporting. And I just want to say thank you very much for listening to the Family of One. And just want to let you know, you can always give me a text, give me an email, just let me know what you like about it, what you want to talk about. And me and I and you're wondering, talk, talk, how is it you're talking? Because you're the one with the microphone. Send me an email, send me something. You can even send me on YouTube. Let me know. And then I will promise you I will send a comment back. And then depending where you have sent it, maybe you've sent it to my my YouTube page, leave a comment, or maybe in the buzz, there's a buzz sprout. This is where mainly my podcast is host. Is that why you say? And you left a comment there, and I haven't reached out. Let me let me know, and that would be awesome. And if you want to come on the podcast and share your story about raising an only child, I would love that. So I just I really appreciate it. Your support, and I absolutely appreciate that you have stuck by this podcast and listen to these stories of raising an only child. So I wanted to talk about this one, is when you've had a child at a later stage of age, and you and you're uh and you're of a of a generous size. Now you're thinking, what in the world do you mean a generous size and of a later age in life? Well, here's the scenario. Here it goes. My daughter is eight years old, and I am going on 59. That's so young compared to it's I say it's young, and so and my size is a generous size, but yet she has found a few tops, the jerseys, the nice, the nice, like really comfy tops, then they're really I don't know what the material would you call it fluffy, it's not even fluffy, but it's really nice soft material, something you would wear during the winter. And could I wear it now? Be very small on me. I think it may be like an XL or maybe a large size. The arms are really long on her, but she has found them, two really nice tops in my closet, and now she started wearing them. Now, yes, they're big on her, but she likes it. She says, Mom, they're comfortable. They're kind of like hoodies. And I was thinking, oh my goodness, because I had her at a later at a later age in my life, I was thinking, man, because I hear stories with other mums with multiple children, or of mums that had ch you know, children a lot younger, and so you know, as they were growing up, the child is like in their 20s, and their mom is close to 50 or something like that, or maybe they had her in their teen, you know, they can kind of fit, they wear similar, they can wear each other's jeans, t-shirts, and I'm like, there's no way in this stage of my life that my daughter is going to wear any of my clothes. One, I didn't even know if she'll like my style, and two, because my body is very generous, you know, she'll be swimming in it. But here I give you hope. If you're thinking, oh no, I had my daughter so late, or there's no way maybe she'll be able to fit a sock. I mean, I was thinking maybe she'll be a she'll be able to wear a scarf and she can wear one of my hair clips. But when she put my top on, my hoodie, my warm, fluffy, really nice, comfortable top, and she was like, Mom, and I was like, Isn't that my top you're wearing? And she was like, Yeah, I was like, huh. It's kind of it's really big, but you look comfortable, and she goes, Oh, I love it, it's so comfortable. Now it's it comes comes well, is it below her knees? No, it's above her knees, but oh my goodness, I thought, well, how about that? I can share to stories too. So when moms share stories of, oh, my daughter took my top, or she took my trousers and never returned it back, or I can say, Well, my daughter, she took she took two of my really nice fluffy tops, and she hasn't given them back. She went through my closet. Maybe it's because I was hearing all these other stories, and I have moms, have friends who have, you know, children, teenage, teenage years, and I get to hear those stories, and I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be a mom that could at least share that type of story with you all. And I thought that is so funny. So if you're of a generous size like myself, and you're wondering, oh my goodness, my child is way too young. Now, yes, it all depends because they could be like, I don't know, depending on what they're wearing, right? But I'm thinking this is hilarious because I too can share that part of now. You might be thinking, you know what, it's just it's just is it really that important? No, but for me, I was like, oh, that's cool, because I have a daughter, and you know, just exchanging each other's clothes would be kind of fun. I don't know. I really you don't know what you don't know, other than we we go out and we buy perfume and makeup and you know skincare and things like that. And then because she knows the perfume, the the brands. Now, how do I know that she knows she probably watches it on YouTube, or she hears it from other friends, she goes, Mm mom, that smells really good. So Sephora, she loves going to Sephora and Ulta, these are um places where you go and shop. If you're wondering what are those places, these are places where you go and buy like makeup, skincare, like they sell a variety of different brands, and it's hilarious. Yeah, Olivia loves to shop there. So if you're gonna go and browse, we go and browse, we you know, use all the samples and we test it, and we can spend a few hours in each shop, and then of course, you gotta go to where all the candy is in the different shop, and then you keep walking down, like come out of one shop, and then you go into another, and you come out of one, and then you go into another, and it's something that her and I enjoy doing, and I have told you what when it comes, but when it came to clothes, it's so funny because our style, her style is mine, is always comfort. I don't know because I'm 49 and I just want things that fit, things that fit me, feel comfortable, and if it can look wonderful, like I can wash it a thousand times, and I can eat in that top, and I don't have to like do anything, like if I sweat because I'm pre-menopausing, if I sweat and it comes through, and I have to like oh man, that's just not gonna work. I need something that if I sweat and eat, I'm gonna be okay, and if I'm slouching, it works. If I'm slouching, it's not gonna wrinkle up really good. So, what is it? What kind of tops? I got a variety of tops, I can't even think of the name or the material, but I there's a specific kind of look that I like, and do I like to iron? Maybe you're listening. I grew up ironing, and so do I know how to iron? Yes, do I love to iron? Is it some people who love to iron? They turn on the tally, they sit down with their ironing board, they get out their clothes and start ironing. Yeah, those are the days, and it's okay, I can put them all in a dryer. Or I did find a steamer and I started steaming my clothes, but it for some reason my steamer ended up dying, and it was a$20 steamer from Amazon. Yeah, I was quite disappointed because I had high hopes, so I just stick with ironing if I have to have it. But getting back to the clothes, that's why I wanted to encourage you. You think it oh, you might have said to yourself, I'm never gonna have that experience. You know, I've had my child way too late in life, or I'm so different in size. Like my child doesn't even, there's no way, well, eventually they're gonna grow up, and who knows? They might want to have, they might want to use your clothes for a costume. Like, I'm sure maybe way things going out of my style, it'll come back and she'll want to use it for goodness. What kind of costume could she use it for? I don't know, they always have like spirit days. Spirit days is where at school you can either have different theme days, different color days, you know, different days, different era of the years, like how I don't know, like Western, or you know, career day. You know, if I came up dressed as a career day, what would be mine? Someone who likes to take naps and study sleep. Maybe you're listening and you're a mom with an only child and actually study sleep. I mean, I absolutely love sleep. So maybe I have something in the closet that represents that, like a fluffy nightgown and a relaxing, like I have a what's it called? A sleeping mask, a nice silk sleeping mask that's so comfy with socks that just feel amazing to get your feet nice and warm, and then you get really hot in bed, and then you take your socks off, right? But for some, I know of you, you might think I leave my socks on. For me, it really depends how I'm going that evening. Leave my socks on, take my socks off, or you know, you may have this electric blanket on. Some of you, like, nope, I don't do electric blankets. Some of you just say, I do leech up blankets. Me, it depends. I have sometimes do leech up blankets on in the winter. I don't leave it on all night, I just get it going so it's nice and warm. Oh, do you remember the hot water bottles? You may be listening and thinking, Oh, yeah, I love hot water bottles. Yeah, I have not had a hot water bottle in a long time, but I grew up, I grew up with hot water bottles because my mum always loved hot water bottles, so you know there's different things, different things to keep you nice and warm, socks, hot water bottles, electric blankets. I don't know what's the point. The point is when I'm getting back to clothes, I like to wear something that's comfortable, and if it looks lovely and the fabric where I don't have to do much to it, I don't have to iron it as much, then I'm gonna buy it, and I'll buy one in every color. I don't know if you do that, but I do. Like, if I get a sweatshirt and I see it and it fits well, and it's so nice, and if it's like a a black, I'll be like, hmm, is there an olive color? Is there a navy color? Is there like a nice four color? Maybe there's a mustard color, maybe there's a nice white, you know. I'm going through each colour, and I want to make sure, and I will grab the same thing. I'll buy four or five of them, I'll do the same pants, I'll do the same t-shirt. I'm similar. And then I probably do I do that with Olivia. I think I used to. If I found something that worked for her, like a like a pants or something, leggings, I'd be like, okay, this material works well, it lasts long because it doesn't have you know, sometimes you can buy kids' clothes, and then there's holes in it. Like we go through a lot of socks, like holes by the toes. Oh my word. So once I find a brand and it's it lasts quite a while, and it doesn't have and doesn't create holes, like she gets holes in them, because she wears, she rides because she has a pony, she rides a lot, she rides her horse every day. Every now and then she's like, Mom, there's another hole in the sock by the toe, there's another hole, and I'm like, We just got the those pairs of socks not like a few weeks ago. So once I find a brand that's really good, I will purchase it a lot. I'm like, this is the brand. Woo wee, but I just want to encourage you, you know. Sometimes you think, man, is it gonna happen for me and some of my experiences when I hear other people, other moms with an only child child talking about their experiences? Will it happen for me too? I don't know, and it really depends too. Like, for me, I wasn't a top that type of person that liked putting on makeup every day, they had hairspray, foundation, you know, the works, cleansing, doing my skincare every day. I mean, was that me? Maybe in my 20s, but I can't really say that I wore foundation every day because the the places where I worked, it just I mean, yeah, I'm sure you can have makeup every day if you want, wherever you go, regardless what your job is, unless you're a scuba diver person, but I don't think you would be putting makeup every day if you're scuba diving. But getting back to the point. Well, what was my point? Oh, my point is this that you and your daughter are gonna have experiences maybe in the times where but it's just gonna look different because I thought I would have to wait till she's a teenager, and maybe she will start maybe wearing some of the clothes somehow that I have in my closet because she would be more interested in them. But at eight years old, she found something way smaller. Okay, when I say way smaller because it's a large, the other people that they might say that's not small, that's actually quite big. Well, it's small for me because I'm a normal, I'm on generous size, and I'm not that big, just letting you know if you're thinking, Well, how big is this late? I'm really not that big. I'll give you a perspective. What am I? Is it 230 pounds? 230, I think it is. Is it on a good day? 230 on 5'7, 5'7, yeah. So what is that? Beautiful, it's amazing because it's my body, which I tell my daughter, hey, I love my body because it's the one I got. Now, can I treat it more better? Yes, but it's a learning process. I am being kind and I'm giving it love. Now, can I eat more vegetables and walk more? Yes, but I'm just letting you know, and some people are thinking, I cannot believe you said your weight on the podcast. I mean, I don't know. Maybe you inspire someone to say, look, if that lady is 230 on a good day, 230 pounds, and she's 5'7, she's willing to admit it. Yeah, yeah, okay. I mean, I don't know. It might encourage you to talk about something else other than your weight. Anyhow, so that's a tip. My sister said, It's a generous size, and I'm generous. So when I look around, I was like, ooh, I need a and if someone said, What size is that? I'm so I'm looking for the generous, the generous size. I think my husband, he'll probably crack up a roll of sides, anywho. So I just want to let you know that sometimes where you hear you may be around other mums with an only child, and they talk about experiences that you're wondering, oh, I either had my child too young or I had my child too late. I'm just not gonna experience that, and maybe, but maybe not, it just maybe won't look in the way that you've thought it would be. And I just want you to appreciate those moments when it does because I was telling another person, we were talking about how children grow up so quick, and we only have the one, right? We only got one child, and so they grow up so quick, and then here's the thing, mom. I'm hoping you're telling yourself you are doing the best you can with the time that's given, with the resources you have, you listen to it. I tell you, on the Family of One podcast, this is your friend four, and I'm telling you, mom, mama, you are amazing. Now, if you're listening to me, which I know some of you are, because there's always at least one person in this world who's listening the last podcast. I want to tell you, you are doing the best you can with the time that's given, with the resources you have, with the information that's given to you. You are doing awesome. Now remember, give yourself some time to hug, hug yourself, love on yourself, you know, tell your soul you are doing awesome, and give yourself a hug. I think they say 20 seconds, right? Yeah, and give yourself a high five. I told one lady, I said, you know, when you come to work, do you say to yourself you're awesome? She goes, Yeah. And so, yeah, every now and then just high five yourself. People probably think, like, what is that lady yelling at herself, like high five, you know, have high five, woohoo. I'm just saying, you can do it. So, once again, I just want to say thank you for listening. Thank you for taking the time to hear this podcast, join this journey, and I, your friend for remember, we're friends now. So, if you're listening to this podcast, we're friends, send me a text, leave me a comment, like, subscribe, and I will meet you in the next episode. Bye.