This Mom works several hours a week at a restaurant she has been with for about two years. The uniform has changed several times since she has been there. Now she has to wear black pants, Red button up shirt, Black socks, and black non slip shoes.
The button up red shirt looks terrible on her, however this job pays bills and gives her children what they need and sometimes things they want. They have a roof over their head and food in their bellies, and because of this she will wear what she is required to wear.
When did it become okay to call this hard working mom over just to tell her that her shirt is ,"God Awful, you look fat, and pregnant. Take it off." Like a slap to her face she couldn't believe it came out of your mouth.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." She grew up hearing this.. how incredibly untrue she came to realize this statement is. She was hurt.. and hurt more than you will ever know, and maybe even care.
That Mom that you called fat and pregnant looking was diagnosed several years ago with a condition that makes it nearly impossible to have kids at all, or ever again. She fights daily to hold back the tears that her choice to have more children was taken from her, and she had to be extremely grateful for the little miracles she did have. She is aware that some don't even have the choice to have children at all. The mention of being pregnant or "looking pregnant" hurts and she chooses to be strong.
The same condition also makes it extremely hard to lose weight. She dropped twenty pounds and is doing great things to progress. The twenty pounds seemed impossible on its own. You didn't know the progress she made when you told her those hurtful words. You didn't know she was proud of her weight loss and started loving herself a little more everyday. You had no idea that the days she works she eats nothing till dinner. Would you like it better if she had nothing at all? She was hurt by words like yours all her life..
You dont know her story. She knows to smile when life is hard even if she wants to cry on the inside. A smile from her could be passed on to someone else to cause a chain reaction. She meets hundreds of people daily.. knowing none of their stories she smiles. If only you had just smiled at her instead of choosing to kick her down when she was starting to climb up.
You may not care.. but your words cut her deep.
