Growing a thicker skin

When I had my children, I was shocked by how deeply I loved those babies.  Just as deeply as falling in love with my husband, but different.  For the first time in my life, I knew I would be willing to die to protect them.  Maybe even kill. At a minimum, inflict some serious pain.

As my kids grew up and I learned to let them go, little by little, I still didn't lose that Mother-Bear-Defend-Them-to-the-Death attitude.

And when the coach kept my child on the bench, when the director gave someone else the part, when the cute boy/girl broke their heart, I was angry or heartbroken along with them.  But I tried (emphasis on tried) to keep it inside because I know that these are the things that shape and guide us and help us to figure out who we are.  Over the years, I grew a slightly thicker skin when it came to my kids.  Slightly.

But now I am going to have to grow a much thicker skin.  Fur coated, dense, virtually impenetrable. 

My son works in advertising.  His successes and shortcomings are his own, known by him, his co-workers, his customers.  His performance reviews are not published online.  I like this about his career.

Mackenzie's world is different.  Because she wants to be a professional singer/songwriter, her work is evaluated openly, critically, publically.

http://www.youtube.com/user/kenzielynne91

People criticize her for being too commercial (it's her ART, quit focusing about making a living!), for doing a cover from their favorite singer (how dare she!), for not doing a cover of their favorite singer (doesn't she know what she should be singing?).  She has fans who tweet and post in the hope of dating her, and not all of them are completely in their right minds.

And she has already warned me that it could get a lot worse.  Someone created a fake sex tape of Carly Rae Jepsen. Mackenzie said "Can you imagine how her mom felt???".

So she guards her privacy.  She is careful not to geotag many of her posts and doesn't respond to inappropriate and negative tweets.  In the world of everybody-shares-everything, this is good practice for all of us, but especially important for someone whose career choice means living under public scrutiny.

And in the meantime, I will work on growing a thicker skin, impervious to the wounds that will be inflicted on my cherished daughter.  If you have any ideas on how to speed up the process, I sure would love to hear them.
+Mackenzie Elliott