“I was mortified when the boss baby entered the assembly hall wearing… hot pants. School colours, thankfully but nevertheless, they weren’t what she had worn to school that morning,” writes “Mummy” columnist KATE MEIKLE.

PARENTING my six-year-old daughter, every day I am reminded of the old adage: 

Sing like no one is listening.

Love like you’ve never been hurt.

Dance like nobody’s watching,

and live like it’s heaven on earth. 

There’s something so beautiful about the lack of self consciousness that little ones possess, and how precious that stage in life is before they inevitably and appropriately grow up, understand and be aware far more of themselves and others than they did.

“Embarrassing” takes place in their vocabularies and rolling eyes at embarrassing family members becomes a regular thing as well as shrugging off holding hands and wiping my kisses off their cheeks. 

I’ve seen this play out with my eldest, my son, who is turning nine next month. Whereas his six-year-old sister, the much-famed “boss baby” of our family still has that natural, carefree kid energy where she can one moment be singing at the top of her lungs (much to her brother’s embarrassment). 

A trip to the supermarket becomes a floor-is-lava game – “don’t step on the white floor tiles, whatever you do!”. Instead of putting pyjamas on after her shower, I find her on her bedroom floor, putting her ballet shoes on in the nude – “they are my sleeptime shoes, mummy,” she says. Wearing cat ears to school?… totally cool. 

I recently attended a special school assembly in which my daughter was awarded a prize for her creative writing. 

I was mortified when the boss baby entered the assembly hall wearing… hot pants. School colours, thankfully but nevertheless, they weren’t what she had worn to school that morning. 

I pictured her cheekily changing out of her leggings and into the boy-short-style bike pants that frankly looked more like undies than shorts. No doubt the boss thought she was the bees knees when she was doing handstands and cartwheels in her short shorts at recess! 

When she stood in front of the school to receive her award, I heard some murmurs from the back of the hall, the year sixers definitely had a giggle at her outfit. I tried to stay in the moment, but every fibre of my being was thinking: “I can’t believe she’s not wearing any pants!”. I of course messaged my husband: “At Assembly. Our daughter is wearing hot pants. She must have changed at school. LOL”. 

I’m thankful that the school didn’t make an issue about it. We dealt with it at home, emphasising the importance that we stick to the school uniform. 

Stories for her 21st? Absolutely. And it makes it easier knowing this gorgeous, out-there little girl is reflecting the confidence, creativity and imagination that we, as adults, could only wish we had bottled at her age and saved for all the crises of confidence we would later face. 

Perhaps she’ll be one of those people whose little flame burns a little more brightly. I hope so! We all have them in our lives – perhaps we are them, the quirky folks in our lives, the people who follow their funny passions, wear tie-dyed shirts because it makes them happy, refuse to worry about being cool and make life more fun and colourful for those around them. I wonder if I had stopped worrying so much about what people thought of me, how much happier and confident I would have been throughout my life. 

Keep dancing like nobody’s watching, my girl!