Hi Everyone,
Sorry it has been a while since my last post. Not a lot has happened lately, but I do have a story that I’d like to share with you all.
Last Friday I went to my allergist to get my allergy shots; and I took a seat across from a boy and his mom and sat beside the brother. I was looking at my phone when another boy and his mom walked into the doctor’s office and headed for the front desk. The boy who just walked in had braces on both his legs and his voice sounded a bit different. I have seen him before so I said hi and gave them a wave and they started to talk to the nurse at the front desk, signing in and all that. The nurse told them they could go to one of the rooms and wait for the doctor, so they walked past the other two boys, their mom and I once more to get to the room. The boy sitting across from me starting to laugh, now I’m not sure if the boy walking by heard or not; but I hope that he didn’t. The boy sitting beside me, the brother asked him, “What’s so funny?” and I couldn’t help but smile at the tone of voice he used with his younger sibling, clearly trying to get a message across. The boy across from me told his brother and mom about how the boy who walked by reminded him of a boy in his class who was in a wheelchair. He then went on to explain how the boy in his class has a “gay voice.” (Whatever THAT means.) And that he and his friend were sitting there during his presentation; laughing. I was shocked by the fact that his boy seemed to be bragging about the fact that he was making fun of the boy at his school, and the boy who had just walked by. I looked over at the mom, expecting her to do something. Not looking up from her magazine she asked, “What did the teacher say?” And the boy replied: “Nothing. My friend was laughing at my reaction and I was laughing at his so there wasn’t a need to stop us.” A rocket scientist isn’t needed to figure out that that is NOT what those two boys were laughing about. But apparently the mom thought it was perfectly okay for her son to make fun of kids and be a bully because he continued to talk and she never once told him to stop it. I’m not sure what appalled me more, the things the boy was saying or the fact that the mom sat there and laughed with him. I wanted to say something, but I knew that if I did; the mom most certainly wouldn’t back me up and the last thing I wanted to do was start a huge fight in the middle of the doctors’ office. So I looked up from my phone and gave the boy the sternest and most disgusting look I have probably given anyone before in my life and just shook my head at him. That made him stop talking. When my mom came to pick me up that day, I was almost in tears as I told her the story; it wasn’t until later that night that I started to cry about it. What the boy and mom did was horrific and cruel, but it also made me realize that if that boy can’t even go to the doctor’s office without being made fun of, I can’t even begin to imagine what he goes through on a daily basis at school. I would just like to take this blog post to remind you all that words are powerful and they can cause so much pain and suffering in someone’s life. For all the parents reading this, take the time to sit down with your kids and teach them that laughing and teasing someone just because they are different is never okay. Encourage not just your kids but the people in your life to be a kind, understanding and loving person because no one deserves to be made fun of. No one.
Love,
Becca
