A Boy and His Butter

I took 4 year-old Bennet to Walmart with  me today. Before we left the house, he asked me if he could take Butter with him.  Let me explain "who" Butter is: Butter is a pink stuffed leopard with sparkly eyelids and a pink t-shirt sprinkled with multi-colored rhinestones. He named her Butter because "she's smooth." He adores Butter, and if a stuffed animal has feelings, then surely Butter adores Bennet. He used to tell us that Butter was his girlfriend, but now he tells us that she is his daughter. They do everything together, he talks to her - telling Butter all of his happy thoughts and sad thoughts. She is fond of gymnastics and is a great dancer...according to Bennet. Recently, it was discovered that Butter has lasers in her eyes so that she can take care of any nasty bad guys that might be lurking in dark corners. In a nutshell...Butter is the most awesome stuffed animal to ever have existed!

Back to our trip to Walmart: I told Bennet that Butter was very welcome to join us on our trip to the store as long as she didn't wander off and get lost. He assured me that Butter would be on her best behavior, and off we went.  When we got to the store, we chose our cart and Bennet decided to ride while holding Butter tightly on his lap. He was all smiles and so happy with his little friend close by.

I was finally able to tear my eyes away from my precious son and take a look around me.  What I saw made me feel a little angry - an old woman giving me and my son a look of pure disgust.  And she wasn't the only one to give us that look as we made our way through the store.  The offenders seemed to all be of the older persuasion and I returned each and every look with my biggest and proudest momma smile.

I've gone through times when I was less than tolerant of other human beings, for a whole big variety of reasons. But as I make my way through this life, I'm learning a few things. First of all, I've learned that I usually NEVER have the entire story and that to make any kind of judgement without knowing someone's entire story, is wrong.  Secondly, life's too short to worry about what other people think.  I don't want to decide not to do something that I really want to do because I'm afraid other people might not approve and I don't want my kids to live that way either.  Living honestly and authentically is becoming more and more important to me as time goes by.  I want my kids to feel free to be who they are...because, in my opinion...they (and their stuffed animals) are amazing!