So, my son bought a fedora. I don’t know where he got it from, or why he bought it, but when I picked him up from his mom’s house yesterday, he had it on. Don’t get me wrong, he looks great, but is a fedora something that a 5th grader should wear? Or more specifically, should he wear it to school? I can honestly say that I want my children to grow up independent and secure in who they are and I don’t want them to worry about what other people think or say. They should be themselves and not let anyone dictate who or what they should be … in theory.
You see, in my mind, when he arrived to school wearing a fedora, kids were going to point at him and laugh. They were going to tell him that he looked stupid wearing that hat, and then spend the next 20 minutes making him cry. The scene finishes with him eating alone in the cafeteria working really hard to hold back tears. Or there was the other version, the version where kids take his hat, rip it up and beat him up for being a pretentious little fedora-wearing panzy boy. He arrives home with a bloody lip and runs to his room crying. What I have just described to you is the real thoughts that ran through my head this morning as I contemplated keeping the fedora at home. Instead, I simply asked him “You sure you want to wear that hat to school?” He responded simply, “Yup.” And that was that. I said nothing else. he got ready for school, which included his gym shoes, backpack, violin and fedora. Him playing the violin, in my mind, did not help. As he leaves the house, about to close the door, I say one thing, “You look great in that hat.” He said, “Thanks” and walked to school.
He is wearing that hat. You go boy!
I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew one thing, my son was going to leave the house knowing that I thought he looked great in that fedora. And he did look great in that fedora. My goal for my kids remain the same. I want them to be independent and not worry about what other people think. But I added another goal to my parenting list today; I want my kids to know what I think. I think my kids are awesome, and he looks good in a fedora.
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I wondered this morning, “what crazy thing would I do if I was filthy rich?” When I say rich, I mean light your cigar with a burning $100 dollar bill rich. Here is what I would do: I would purchase a barber style chair, I would make a special room with a HD television on the wall, and wall speakers connected to my voice activated i-pod that is connected to the internet and automatically downloads any song that I request. Blu-ray with surround sound of course. I would hire the most attractive woman I could find. She would be paid $50,000 a year to wear high heel shoes and a nice low-cut black dress, and at least once a week, using tweezers, pull the white hairs from my beard one by one. Happy ending would be optional. I’m just sayin …
He is very good at the violin, and the fedora completes the ensemble.
Race Credit Karma: Brett's Blog 