Beck Vass: 'Mummy, why is your tummy fat?'

I just love having my flaws pointed out to me by a tiny example of human perfection. Photo / Getty Images

Sometimes, your kids damage your self-esteem. If you have any left after pregnancy and childbirth, that is.

A while back, when my daughter was a chatty three-year-old, she looked at my stomach and asked: "Why is your tummy so big?"

On a good day, I would find this hilariously untrue and have a chuckle. On this occasion I was feeling a wee bit bloated so the fact that Little Miss Observant had noticed hit a nerve.

I told her I don't actually have a big stomach but you can't argue with a three-year-old.

"Yes - it is," she assured me and continued to take things further: "Did you eat too much?"

"Yes, darling, I must have." I conceded, depressed.

Then there was the time I was reading to her before bed and I noticed her gaze move to above my eyes. She squinted, intrigued. She stuck her little index finger out, reached up and traced along a gentle "M" shape above my eyebrows. It was too far gone. I knew what was coming.

"What are those?"

"Wrinkles, darling."

"Oh."

She raised her eyebrows as high as she could, her big blue eyes open as wide as they can get.

My daughter tried as hard as she could to make wrinkles like mine. Photo / Getty Images

"Do I have them?" Nothing. Pure collagen.

"No, honey, you don't have them."

"But I want some."

"You'll have some one day, honey."

I just love having my flaws pointed out to me by a tiny example of human perfection, bright white teeth and plump skin - no scars, blemishes, rough bits or harsh life lessons tainting her pureness.

Then there was the time she asked me to put her hair up in a bun.

"Like yours," she said to me. I did as she asked. She looked in the mirror afterwards then looked back up at me, frowned, and glanced back in the mirror before she began tugging at the hair above her ears. She was trying to replicate my frizzy fly-aways.

"But I wanted it like yours, with those bits," she said as she grabbed, looking at my hair.

"Oh honey, those bits aren't meant to be there," I said.

I may have been conditioned to worrying constantly about having a big tummy, wrinkles, and frizzy hair, but I'll take a perfect little kid wanting all my flaws any day.