As we are heading in to the school year, fresh off of summer break, if there is one thing we all can do, we can put away the shaming. Yes, I said it. Put it away.
Recently, I posted a simple picture on one of my social media accounts about pencils. A specific kind, I’ll add, unsharpened, with the caption “Inquiring minds want to know… best way to sharpen these 48 pencils… or are you a rebel and send unsharpened.”
Thinking it would be a fun post that no one would comment on, and would get some of the “haha” reactions.. it ended up being a full-blown conversation between 20+ moms on school supply buying tips, what is the best pencil sharpener, getting their kids involved, and other fun tidbits. All day, it was a fun conversation between friends, positive replies to replies, something you don’t see all to often in the social media world. On a topic, none the less about pencils. How much simpler can one get?
Throughout my years of social media training, keeping my accounts light-hearted and generally not giving any attention to any drama, because I am simply a NO drama Momma, my feeds are generally about mom stuff, makeup, my friends businesses, quotes shared, and pics of my friends’ kids. Why is this? Because I like/love their posts, I give positive comments, I lift instead of bringing down.
When people post on their social media platforms, they are taking a chance, putting themselves out there for the world to see them. It is for the attention. Human nature, we all want some sort of attention. When we share our personal worlds, I can almost guarantee, each person hoped they would get a like or two, and hoped they would get positive reactions. It is like when we got those new pairs of shoes and we loved them, they made us feel good, and we hoped everyone else thought they were cool, too. Same thing. Social media is the same thing. We post to express ourselves, to educate, to share, to be proud, to be supportive, to show our believes. Sure, it can all highlight reals, or it can be the worst of times for each individual, but they took a chance on what they thought was ok for us all to know, and it isn’t our place to make them feel bad.
Now, with all of this, I know there is not amazing stuff being posted, not everything in life is sunshine and rainbows.. but what I can tell you is… be positive, attract positive, positive will come your way. Simple as that.
As I carried on with my day, and loved each of the great ideas my friends shared, and the tidbits shared so I can learn about their situations, I was told that it was a “small world problem, and I should learn how to problem solve…”
Now I am not about to flash my beautiful brown MBA hood around and call myself a genius, but I am going to tell you that you can slow your ride and it’s not cool to rain us Mom’s who forgot to sharpen our kids’ 48 pencils for school tomorrow. This shame has no place in my space. Your single comment questioning me why I really posted such a thing, is not wanted. Sure, you have the 1st amendment, but be a team player. Some of us Moms really do have some of the most obvious questions you seasoned veterans have the answers to.. help us, don’t shame us. High-five us for at least having the pencils bought! And, a quick add.. I know it is oh so frustrating when Mom/Dad of XYZ kid hasn’t figured out how to do the drop off lane, but for these first days, can we give them just a bit of grace? They will “hopefully” learn in time how to do it???!! And… if not, then we can say something. We’ve all been there, we all have made the we didn’t move fast enough, we’ve been honked at.. it didn’t feel good.. So this year, let’s educate vs. shame!
This goes for kids, too. Let’s teach them not to shame. Teach them to help, to be a resource. Teach them to “fill the bucket” and don’t be a “bucket dipper.” If my kids’ school can teach this to 5 year old’s, then us adults have no excuses.
Best of luck to all of you in your back to school days. Stay positive, help that questioning Momma/Dad, and may those pencils get sharpened!
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