Your Mask is Completely Inappropriate and What Happened Later

A week or so ago I wrote this Your Mask is Completely Inappropriate post for CBC Parents. Here’s what happened afterwards.

As some of you probably already know, I freelance and publish content in many other spaces. This year, a lot of that content has appeared on CBC Parents. Happy to hang my hat there sometimes.

An Excerpt From My Recent Post on CBC Parents

This past week we were walking through a grocery store near my home when my teenage daughter spied something scrawled on a face mask.

In fact, I heard her speaking to a stranger before I even saw why.

So Why Did She Speak Up?

This post is all about the day we went to the grocery store and Payton spied a lady wearing a mask scrawled with Thanks China, which was not at all okay with either one of us.

But, Payton spoke up….

Here’s why it offended her, what she said and how that went.

Déja Vu

The reactions to the post were a little surprising. Of course, there were a couple of “parenting experts” who advised me I was not raising kind children. I actually think it is kind to stick up for others and to reject racism, sexism and homophobia as well as transphobia.

The reaction to the post reminded me a bit of when I used to write for daily newspapers.

Back then, it wasn’t unusual for someone to call me out of the blue on a Saturday morning for no reason other than to complain about a column I had written. To be honest, it was intrusive but nothing like this.

Anti-maskers are sliding into my DMs like it’s okay to be an anti-masker and a racist, they’ve emailed me to rant about my parenting and angrily detail why they are anti-China and why I should also “open my eyes.”

Some messaged me on Facebook messenger and through this blog, as well to complain about my daughter speaking up. The crux of that argument was that she is a teen and should remember her place and be respectful.

Earn it

But to that my teens both blurted last week: “You need to earn respect.”

There are definitely times when age matters. But I grew up in an era where kids were seen and not heard. Period. If my Mom was talking to the adults, we were to be quiet. At holiday events we sat at the kid’s table.

My kids aren’t those kids. They don’t go through life sitting at the kid’s table.

Raising Kids with Heart and More

They both have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and anxiety. One has ADHD with the hyperactive component and the other has ADD with the inattentive part. They both blurt things sometimes, but this is not about that. This is about speaking up when you see injustice or something that offends you..

When Is Age Irrelevant?

Age is also irrelevant sometimes.

For instance, when you are actually speaking out about something offensive. Our kids both speak out and up and they have opinions and they are girls, so I encourage that wholeheartedly.

So, I’m happy to see that they did speak out and up. I don’t mind all the messages because at least people are reading the content and engaging. Period. Ultimately, I can’t control you but I am raising my kids to speak up and out and question when things are not right.

Read the Full Mask Post here – > Your Mask is Inappropriate.

Would You Speak Up?