Ok so I only have a minute here but I need to tell ya what I just came home to this afternoon. We all went to the Last Harrah at Ethan’s school They were having one last open house kind of thing before the school gets torn town. Anyway, so I just got back and checked my email before starting to prep for cards. I get this email (I have deleted the senders name)…

Jen,

Not sure if that was your van in the parking lot at 13 mile and Harper today, but I wanted to let you know that your magnetic ribbon about kids needing both parents is offensive. Yeah, it’d be great if each kid in the world had two loving, attentive, patient parents. But, the truth of the matter is that that does not always happen. Imagine kids with one parent dead or a parent who is raising kids alone because the other is abusive or incarcerated (for example) – yes, those are kids with one parent. If that kid were to read your message, they would automatically come to the conclusion that they are lesser than those with two parents. Why should he or she be made to feel like crap because of your “values” ? The world needs less judgment of others. I hope you’d agree with that.

Also, not a good idea to have controversial value statements alongside your business name. Just a thought.

Ok so let me first say… uhh, I don’t have a freakin’ van. I assume the business sticker the email refers to is really the URL for my blog, which I do not have on my car, but a few other friends of mine do. As for the parenting sticker, well, I don’t have one of those either.
Now maybe I’m just crabby today, but that email really hit me in a BAD way. I’m beyond irritated for a number of reasons. I mean hello, might it make sense to be sure you were attacking the right person before sending off an email like that?? So yes, I’m cheesed that I was a wrongful target. I’m also miffed as a past single parent. Those of you that are close to me know that I was a single parent to my oldest son from the moment of conception until he was a toddler. That being said, I’m also a mother of three. So accusing me of putting some stupid sticker on my car that was going to make a certain group of children feel like “crap” is also upsetting to me.

All of that being said, my take on it… uhh free speech, and it is a stupid sticker. If you don’t like it don’t look. I’ve seen a lot of things on the back of cars that offend me, but I don’t hunt them down and send them a nasty email about it. So the sender of this email had to follow the URL on the back of the van and find a personal email address for me to send this letter. At no point while fishing for my email did it occur to her to open her eyes wide enough to see that the URL is NOT for a business anyway.

So I’m peeved, and this lady has now added a nasty tone to my entire day. Let that be a lesson to everyone… if you have to be nasty with someone or call them out on values you don’t agree with, please make sure you are focused on the right person first!

~j