I was raised in a family where my mom constantly touted how selfless she was. The truth: she really is selfless. She raised 5 children and was constantly sacrificing for us.

BUT those sacrifices have now turned into a poor sense of how to be a woman for me. She wore minimal makeup and never got her hair/nails done. As a result, I never learned how to wear makeup and I think of getting my nails and hair done as a luxury and a waste of my money.

She took 5 minute showers, usually cold, because there were 6 other people in the house and she went last. As a result, I shower maybe 3x per week and dont clean myself to the extent I should.

Im not blaming my mom for how I am, I am seeing a correlation between what i witnessed growing up and my current lifestyle as an adult.

Now that I'm pregnant, I want to teach my daughter (if its a girl) about all of these things but I don't know how because I never learned them. I dont even own foundation that matches my skin tone. So, I guess I'm going to have to learn and teach myself over the next few months before our baby is born, I just have to learn how to put myself first and spend a little more time on my physical appearance.

UPDATE: Don't get me wrong ladies. I know that its important to have self respect and be confident in yourself without gobs of makeup or nails. What I'm saying is that I didn't grow up with any sense of putting my best self forward. I am smart, and have a great husband who doesn't care what i look like. But I don't have a sense of style so my clothes don't put my best self forward and I don't wear makeup, even subtly, so I lose confidence in how I look because all of my flaws are visible.

All I was saying is that I wish my mom would have added an ounce of 'looking good' education in my childhood, and I want to do that for our children.