“To the inconsiderate stranger I encountered the other day”…
That’s how Terri Peter’s began her open letter to the woman who stood behind her in a queue and accidentally insulted her daughter’s short haircut.
Terri explained that in making small talk, the woman remarked that the little girl would be as pretty as a princess… if she didn’t have a short bob.
Terri writes: “You do not know my child. You do not know that she cried every day when I brushed her long hair, leaving both of us frustrated and in bad moods.”
She explains that the little girl loved her short haircut, but had decided to grow it long for a ballet recital so that she could wear it in a bun.
“You did not see how proud she was when she wore her hair in a bun for her dance recital, nor did you hear the excitement in her voice when it was over and she asked me, ‘Can I get my hair cut short again now?'”
You did not watch her sit still — and be very well-behaved for a 4-year-old — while she got her new haircut. You definitely did not watch her look at herself in the mirror and smile when it was finished because she was so happy with her new look.
“What a beautiful doll,” you say to her. “Which princess is that?”
She looks at you with her silly, friendly attitude on display and says, “Rapunzel!”
And then, you look at my perfect little girl and say, “Well, her long hair is so pretty. You would be that pretty, too, if you had long hair.”
Writing that she felt like the lady “punched me in the stomach”, she concluded with a plea:
“But please, in the future, speak with more caution to the little girls you meet. Children soak up everything, even the voices their mommas wish they could shield them from.”
Read the entire letter, written for Babble.com, here.
Images via Terri Peters
