My Child is a Mind Reader
Over the last couple weeks, there have been a series of coincidences involving Harlow that have made me question things. Were these coincidences or does she have some form of psychic abilities? Is this just the universe working in strange ways or is she a straight up prophet? Or maybe, like the tiktok algorithm, is she just really good at storing and processing information to spit out at a later date and sound like she read your mind?
Allow me to present the evidence.
Evidence #1: The Case of the Vintage Bunny
Over the holidays, a very nice follower who identified herself only as SunnySouthFinds left a small brass bunny on the doorstep of the March Hare. She said she’s a long time follower who runs a vintage shop in Atlanta, happened to be visiting New York and had the perfect little vintage figurine for our toy shop.
The bunny was indeed perfect and when we received it, I wanted to post something on Instagram to say thank you. As I was crafting the caption, I realized that it would be nice if we gave the bunny a name, but I didn’t want to be the one who picked it. So, I called Harlow over facetime, showed her the bunny and asked her. “What do you think we should name it?” “Stephanie,” she said without missing a beat. There was a moment when I thought, Stephanie is such an odd 80s name for a bunny, maybe I should ask her to pick something else. But then, because Harlow said it so definitely, I was like, Nah. Stephanie is perfect. I thanked Harlow for her service and hung up. Then I wrote the caption and posted.
SunnySouthFinds responded underneath with how much she loved the name and I thought, oh I guess she appreciates a good 80s name too and told her that Harlow had picked it quickly and definitively!
Then Leah, who was manning the shop with me and there for the whole naming process, noticed that someone else responded asking if there was any reason that Harlow selected the name. SunnySouthFinds responded, “That’s my name!”
She wrote it as if Harlow and I both knew this and obviously, that’s why we named her Stephanie, but I swear up and down, with Leah as my witness, WE DID NOT! It’s possible that I’ve DMed with Stephanie on Instagram at some point prior to the delivery where she told me her name, but I DM with so many people and I most certainly did not remember. The card she left with the bunny was signed only “SunnySouthFinds.” I checked. But even more to the point, even if I had heard her name and forgotten it, there was no world in which Harlow would have heard it!
Harlow picked that name out of absolute thin air.
Evidence #2: The Sweater Mind Meld
This next piece of evidence involves Leah as well. Leah and Harlow made a plan to go out to brunch last Saturday. Yes, this was voluntary on Leah’s part. They are kindred spirits and she asked if she could take Harlow out on her own. Harlow, as predicted, was very excited for some dedicated Leah attention. That morning, Harlow walked out of her room wearing jeans and her favorite strawberry cardigan. She actually hadn’t worn the cardigan in a few weeks so I was pleased to see it making a resurgence. Then Leah arrived wearing a very similar floral cardigan.
“Oh that’s so cute!” I exclaimed. “Look, Harlow, you guys match!”
Harlow nodded knowingly like she wasn’t surprised at all.
“Oh. Did you guys plan this?” I asked.
Leah shook her head. Harlow said, “No, but I knew she was going to wear it.”
I said, “But I’ve never seen Leah in this sweater before. How did you know she even owned it?”
Leah said, “Ummm… I believe I sent her a Happy New Year picture on December 31st where I was wearing the sweater.”
Harlow nodded. “Yep, that’s how I knew.”
Evidence #3: The Summoning of Taye Diggs
On the way home from her Broadway dance class, Harlow started talking about Idina Menzel because they were playing the Wicked soundtrack in class. I reminded her that she met Idina when she was a guest on the Mommy Show. (Who remembers the Mommy Show???) Then I told her that Idina first got famous when she starred in Rent, which was exciting to Harlow because she has recently started listening to that soundtrack too. Then I remembered that Taye Diggs was also in Rent and a guest on the Mommy Show as well, so I told Harlow that she met him too.
“Who is he?” Harlow asked. She didn’t remember because she was barely a year old at the time.
“He’s the one who wrote Chocolate Me.” I knew Harlow would remember that because he gave us a copy and Chocolate Me was one of her favorite books for years.
“Ohhhhh. I know the book but I don’t remember what he looks like.”
I told her we would look up Taye Diggs when we got home. Two minutes later, we walk in the door. Harlow goes straight to her room and I go into the living room where Mazzy is watching New Girl. It was an episode I had never seen before.
“Harlow, come here! LOOOOOOK!!!!”
Harlow walks into the living room and stops in her tracks. “Mommy. Why are you showing me this naked man??”
“That’s Taye Diggs!!!!!!”
Has your kid ever done anything that made you think they had psychic powers? Tell me your stories in the comments!
I echo what a lot of people have said, I have had the ability most of my life to "hone in on" people, and know something is up with them, or get the feeling I am going to see them out somewhere, or they're going to call, etc. and Harlow has always given me the same vibe. She is an empath, for sure. In the larger scheme of things, it's a sure sign that she is a kind and considerate kid, and one that is self assured. So, nice job on that, mom and dad!
So the men in my family (dad and husband) are convinced that the women in my family have some sort of psychic connection. The most striking example of this came several years ago. I am a biologist, and early in my career I spent extensive amounts of time conducting field work in very remote settings in northern Canada, mostly in mining exploration camps. One day, arriving back to camp from the field, I had an urgent email from my mom asking me to call her right away. When I called, she told me that she had come upstairs in their house (2,000 km away) and found my bunnikins baby bowl, which usually resided in the very back of the closed cupboard of the China cabinet - a cupboard that was at most 4” off the carpeted floor, broken in half on the floor. She immediately had a terrible premonition that something has happened to me.
Well, that very day in the field we’d had a close encounter with a grizzly bear and had to be extracted by helicopter from our location. The bear had probably been within 10 m of us (we never saw it as it was in thick brush), but it made all sorts of angry huffing noises while we fumbled around pulling out bear spray and radios and satellite phones and noise makers. We couldn’t get through to our helicopter on the radio and when we phoned camp, they hung up on us at first. Eventually, we were extracted without incident but it was probably the closest and scariest bear encounter I’ve had.
Anyway, mom knew. Mom always knows.