Can we talk about assumptions?  Just kidding your at my mercy I can talk about anything I want.

Once I made a post on Facebook about how I didn’t agree with the school policy in which if you wore a sports teams shirt you went to the front of the lunch line. Of course, some assumer jumps on me about “Participation Trophies” and how liberals blah blah blah. Here’s the problem with that statement. My kids go to the art-focused school. A school where many kids have to audition or be tested to get in. What in the hell does that have to do with sports? Isn’t rewarding the kids who just have on the right shirt a participation trophy? They didn’t work for that, they haven’t proved they deserve a reward. All they have to do is go to a store and buy a damn shirt. How about if you excel in your art, make good grades, or have a great conduct grade? Shouldn’t that be something to reward? I am sorry but some kid could be a complete asshat and if he wears a Saints shirt he gets rewarded? That girl with her LSU shirt could have a horrible attitude and barely work and she gets rewarded? If it was a sport-oriented school then okay, I can see it. That makes sense. What about a shirt with a personal drawing on it, a quote from a great author, or musical notes from an influential piece of music.

Also, why because I expressed this opinion am I all of sudden a snowflake? A hippie Mom? Is it my funky glasses or my artist friends? Let me tell you something I have very outspoken liberal friends who raise their kids to be anything but overprivileged whiners. I have republican friends whose kids are treated like precious little perfect angels. What do politics have to with raising our children? I know this is crazy but maybe how we were raised has something to do with how we raise our children. For example, I would rip my kids a new one if they went online and insulted someone they didn’t know and in no way affected their life. Yes, believe it or not I am somewhat of hard ass when it comes to my kids. The way I dress has in no way affected my ability to shout across a crowded mall, “Who do you think you are? Not today little girl - not today.” I tell my kids if you want to act like an ass in public then you will be treated like one in public. If I was that guy's mother, I guarantee you I would have replied to him in this public forum that he was rude and he should be ashamed of himself for acting like a presumptuous fool in a matter that in no way concerned him. 

Maybe just maybe if you are behaving like that you got away with too much when you were a kid. I know if I had ever talked to another person like that my ass would have been grass. We ate vegetarian and had a VW van but that in no way gave me the green light to be disrespectful to my fellow man. I know shocker right. But my dad’s choice of clothing and vehicle in no way affected what he expected of us. 

But, what do you care what I think? It’s not like the school is going to read it and say, “Well Ms. Meaux has spoken - we must change our policies.” I just go into the pile of the million things parents complain about. Do I like your angry rants about the line at Chic-fil-A or constant political posts that are grossly under fact checked? No. DO I comment on them? No. You know why? Because I remember this rule - never argue about religion or politics. No will ever change their mind. I now lump every single subject into this quote. I know what I believe and think and that’s all I need to know. I don’t to waste precious minutes of my life demeaning others because we don’t believe the same things. What is the point? The only thing that changes things is actual action.

Voting, volunteering, trying to spread important messages, educating people, mentoring… Actions change things, not reactions. I wish we would stop assuming that appearance or political affiliations are exactly who a person is. People are the sum of all their parts and you are only seeing a couple parts. I am sure I look like a whiny snowflake or whatever insult they are throwing about now but maybe parts of me are but I am also a woman who has worked almost everyday of her life since she was 15, who was left to raise her little brother at a very young age, who has survived very traumatic events, who teaches her kids that life hands you nothing you don't have to work for, and even when you work for it can still knock you down but you just have to keep going.

So... I will try to stop jumping to conclusions if you drive a giant truck and blare Toby Kieth while driving 20 miles over the speed limit. Unless your truck has truck those nuts. Sorry dude but I am never looking past that, never.