No judgement!

Stop the snap judgements, try supporting each other.

Walk a mile in my flip-flops first…everyone has their own story.

I work from home, I am also a mom and a wife….99.9% of my meetings are on the phone or Skype….the other .1% are local clients/businesses.  Most of those local places I have been in before, they know me, they have seen what I look like on a normal day.

I am a busy lady, I have 3 days a week  when both kids are in school to schedule any meetings with clients, get groceries, go to my own doctors appointments, trip over some toy trains, swear at a Barbie, get some actual work done…and occasionally have a moment to pee or better yet sleep!  I am almost always in jeans and a sweatshirt, or if I’m feeling fancy…a sweater.

This particular day, both kids were going to school/daycare. I managed to get them both dropped off with minimal tears, run to my fav coffee shop, they have my usual waiting. I sit with my laptop to work on some things, edit two websites, have a phone call with a VIP client, do some last minute work for her, get a Skype from another client having a problem, fix that.  I then realize I’m running out of time…run home to let the dog out.  Now I have the faithful decision to make….I forgot to pick up my prescription and we are out of milk.   Do I race there now and risk being late and not getting the front of the pickup line or do I try to drag both tired cranky kids through the pharmacy after….YUP, I go now and give in that I’ll prob be parking at the end of the school parking lot.

I get my script, I am standing in line at the front to grab my gallon of milk.  This particular pharmacy I am at a lot, the manager knows me. So, he saw me and knew I had to get my girls  opened another register to take me, I walk up…and this woman, who is admittedly dressed wonderfully and makes me look shabby with my faded green hooded and fav black flipflops, walks right in my path and cuts me.  Ok…whatever lady, I can let that go….then proceeds to say to the manager….”I appreciate you opening up the line for people like me, I have actually important places to be unlike some of these people that just get to stay home all day while the rest of us work” and points at me….she literally pointed.

…..REALLY?!?  who says that??

It was just one of those moments, I was so dumbstruck by how naive and rude and just moronic that comment was, she was gone in a whirlwind before I even processed what she said to attempt to come up with something to say that wouldn’t end in me having to call my husband and explaining why I needed bail money. ( the manager assured me he opened it for me, and 4 other people made nasty comments after she left)

So, here is the thing I started thinking about it …I could sit here and analyze what the woman wore, what she bought and make superficial judgements about her….trust me, I could, I would be very good at it.  But to what end?  That is exactly what she did to me …and where did that get her?  Absolutely no where, she came off looking rude to a store full of people and left clueless.  Unless of course she happens to be reading this in which case  *Hi, I hope you are having a good day :)*

But think about how often we make instant superficial judgements of people…all the time. We don’t mean to but it’s often instinct to jump to that judgement, first impressions right?

We have no idea what they have gone through that day, what they do, what is going on in their lives.  Everyone, especially now a days is struggling to make a living, or even find a job.  People who have jobs and are trying to prove themselves, or success as an entrepreneur in a world filled with ever changing technology and a lot of people making that leap to working for themselves and trying to keep up. I am also pretty sure there are millionaires and billionaires out there who might occasionally grab a gallon of milk.

So maybe we should all just take a little step back and just attempt to be a little nicer to each other. Support our friends and co-workers instead of talking about them behind their backs.  Smile at a stranger once in a while and try not to make a snap judgement about what they have going on in their life because of their looks.  Pay it forward and all that good stuff. I promise…life doesn’t have to be miserable.

Ashley Nialetz

Ashley Nialetz is a Social Media Consultant and Virtual Assistant through her company www.FatPugTech.com and recently www.Shuteit.com. She is also a wife, mom of two, caffeine addict, customer service pro and superhero by night. She loves working with other women looking to start their own businesses and offers private mentoring programs. Prior to working in the in the virtual assistant world, she had 10+ years of experience in customer service and administrative management roles.

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