Words that echo through time...

Before Kindergarten, I attended an in-home daycare run by a family friend of my dad's.  My "daycare mom" had a short name, Pat.  I don't have a lot of memories of my time there aside from cold cereal for breakfasts, episodes of Scooby-Doo and The Price is Right, and playing outside in a driveway on small bikes and Big Wheels with other children.  I also remember some words, vividly.

I was a confident child with a high self-esteem.  I would often dress in pink and announce that I was pretty, or pretty like a princess.  Every time I would announce this in the presence of my "daycare mom," she would follow with an insult.  It would go like this:

Me: I'm pretty!
Her: Yeah, pretty ugly. *chuckle*
Me: No, I'm pretty! Pretty like a princess!
Her: Yeah, pretty. Pretty ugly, just like I said.

Those words were damaging, because I eventually believed them.  I struggled with low self-esteem and poor self-perception for years, from pre-kindergarten into my junior and even senior year of high school.  Even as an adult, I can still hear her in my head some days, but I've worked hard over time to change that perception using mostly affirmations and corrections when I get hard on myself.