Friday, February 10, 2017

When your new status of WOKE inadvertently lands on your 10-year-old

So yesterday I really started to embrace my new FIRED UP READY TO GO WOKE status.

This morning, I got up, showered and dressed for an early appointment. I came downstairs in my dress and slippers to get breakfast ready for the boys. Drew sat there in his bar chair and said, "Mom, your skirt is too short."

FIRST OF ALL: WHAT WHAT WHAT????????????????????????

I should explain that all this occurred pre-coffee as well.

I said, "Excuse me?" and his face fell. He started to sputter. I held up my index finger (even though Id had no coffee I managed not to give my kid the Finger). Then I said:

1. What I choose to wear any day, work or personally related, is none of your business.
(add in the second finger)
2. What YOU choose to wear any day is none of anyone else's business.
(add in the third finger)
3. What exactly is too short in a knee-length skirt?

He had no response. I guess sometimes the best parenting is so organic and unexpected that you have to capture that moment, that lightning in a bottle. I think I did okay by ensuring that he knows that his opinion on how someone, especially someone female, is dressed has no bearing on him in the least. But along the same lines, how he dresses has no bearing on anyone else's life. And he will not shame a person for their sartorial choices. Not once in my house. Not once in my presence. Not once while I am teaching him right from wrong.

Poor kid walked right into my new status, and I don't think he know what hit him. But I hope whatever hit him sticks in the most positive of ways...

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