Posted on 09/27/2022 8:32:32 AM PDT by lowbridge
My children were born in New York City. As toddlers, they played in the American Museum of Natural History, joined baby-music classes on the Upper East Side, gnawed on street pretzels, and threw leaves in the air in Central Park.
I had originally expected to be a Manhattan mom, but over the years I've come to accept they are now southern kids living in Houston, Texas.
They wear shorts year-round, wear sunshine on their skin, crave Whataburger, have never made a snowman, and get pumped for Go Texan Day, dressed in boots, vests, and hats — it's like Halloween twice a year in my eyes.
It wasn't my idea to move from a comfortable life in Manhattan to Houston, my ex's home city. I thought it was supposed to be temporary, but I was wrong.
Texas showed me BBQ festivals, square dancing, bluebonnets, and the flaws of my marriage. Now with a Texas divorce decree and the kids settled in school with friends and activities, it seems like I'm stuck here for good, or at least until my kids grow up.
-snip
There are also experiences that remind me I'm in Texas, like a dead snake's skin being tangled in my daughter's scooter wheels, a "beware of alligators" sign at a playground, armadillo sightings, a lack of road shoulders, and guns-and-ammo signs next to a pet store.
I worry about my kids' safety wherever they go while living in a state with historically loose gun laws. I worry about what women's health will be like for my daughter's generation. I debate on how young of an age I will tell her about contraceptives because of the war on women's access to care and treatment in this state.
(Excerpt) Read more at insider.com ...
I understand why her husband divorced her.
"Houston: one of several Texas cities that have been polluted by the Trash moving in from the North and bringing their voting habits with them ..."
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