Yesterday, I had some dental work done, with all the associated financial, physical, and emotional pain and mix-up that goes with that. But my after-dental care was a little different than usual. You see, my daughter is home from college. She's nineteen, and I came out to her last fall about being multiple. She's had a few brief glimpses of Kiara and Cherish in the past, but has never actually knowingly interacted with anyone other than her Mom. But since she was going to drive me home from the dentist, I warned her that she was likely to see some other alter out that afternoon, probably Kiara.
So we got home from the dentist and got settled in. We decided to curl up on the bed and watch a movie, so the kid was moving around setting that up when Kiara came out. The kid had just gone into the other room, and when she came back, she immediately said, "Hi Kiara." Just like they were good friends or something. It was wonderful to see.
You see, I expected that her recognition of an alter would go one of two ways. Scenario One - she identifies me so strongly as her mother that she would be unable to see me as anyone else. Scenario Two - she knows me so well that she would immediately know when I wasn't me. And I already suspected it would be the latter. When I was first talking to her about my being a multiple, she immediately pointed out a day that I wasn't acting normally and asked if that was an alter that day. She was right; Rubi was out that day. So I wasn't surprised when she 'caught the switch' and recognized Kiara immediately. I was pleased.
And I was proud of the way she interacted with Kiara. They watched some movie and talked a lot; they colored and played with Silly Putty. And they snuggled and laughed. She's really great with kids; she'll be an excellent mother one of these days.
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