Oh my goodness society has done a number on some of us. Makes me sad.

I’m standing in line at the store earlier tonight. There are 3 people ahead of me and several others behind me. There’s a mother and little girl right behind me and I hear the little girl say, “mommy I want that…I want pink hair like her.” I did not turn around but I giggled a little inside because I thought it was cute. Immediately after the little girl said that her mother said, “no we’ve already talked about that and she probably has tattoos all over her body and has zero self respect for herself and she’s a bad influence on young girls like you.”

Rutrohhhh!!!!! Whoa!!!!! Huh? Did I really just hear this? Like, FOR REAL? Is this woman really saying this to her daughter about me?

Like any educated, self respected, tattood woman with pink hair… I turned around and made eye contact with the mother. I smiled at her as I tried not to grit my teeth. I knelt down to the little girls level (she was probably 8 or 9) and I said, “sweet girl, my pink hair is not permanent and it will wash out.” I stood up and put my hand out to shake the mothers hand. She actually reached out and shook my hand back. I said, “My name is Sarah and I do have several tattoos, I do have pink hair, and I also have several Bachelor degrees and I graduated top of my class. I do have the utmost respect for myself, and my child, therefore I would NEVER speak ill of anyone in front of my child and unlike you, I would have set a better example as a mother. There are so many other ways you could have said ‘no’ to the young girl but instead you chose to deliberately talk bad about me in my presence. I also want to give you some advice on judgement. Think before you speak and make sure that you are setting a positive influence on your child. If you think for one second that your self righteous comment hurt my feelings, it did not. It did, however make me feel sad for the little girl over there.”

The woman proceeded to tell me that she thinks people like me set bad examples for young children. I turned around and paid for my stuff and left. We didn’t exchange any other words. Look, I get it. I know everyone has freedom of speech and is entitled to their own opinion. I’ve just never been targeted as a negative influence. It was almost like an out of body experience.

In my defense the little girl walked about 8-10 feet away after I stood up and I was very quiet about the last part of my statement to the woman. I’m certain the little girl did not hear me.

This didn’t even make me mad. It made me sad for her daughter and other individuals who set out to make bad examples of those of us who are genuinely good people and make good choices.

…If I had a casserole for each time I said, “Bless your heart”.