I knew that, if I got there this one time, I was getting as near as possible. The work ran late another last minute repair but I had promised my kids I’d go to my children’s school function. I managed to hurry there, still wearing grease stained clothing, hands rough and smelling of motor oil.
As soon as I entered I could feel the looks. Dressed moms, whispering too, and other dads in clean buttondowns. Then I caught sight of her. My spouse.
She blushed not because she was happy, but embarrassed.
She hastily rushed over and hissed beneath her breath. “So you cannot change first?”
“I didn’t want to be late,” I wiped my hands on my jeans and told him.
She lost it at that point.
“This is embarrassing,” she yelled. “You look repulsive! Do you know that this portrays us like this?
Turning away from me, she left before I could say a word, and we found ourselves left with her, our five year old, our teenage daughter and I in a quiet.
My daughter’s face was be on sored with embarrassment. He simply gripped my hand more tightly. My mother? She simply gave a headshake.
I remained. I applauded for my children. They sat with me. I made them feel loved and not ashamed.
Then karma took over.
The following week, my wife had gotten my car to start for her in the grocery store, but her car wouldn’t start. The mechanic, one of the fathers who came from the school gathering, put a call in for a tow truck when she phoned a tow truck. The man that had witnessed the whole event.
After a glance at the automobile and then at her, he smirked. “What,” he said, “you want me to help you on this?” and he would not have ‘brought me into mischief’.
She turned pale.
He fixed it anyway, real work has nothing to be embarrassed about.
That evening she got home, she also spoke very little, simply sat down beside me, silently, and realized what I had figured out all along.
What you put on, doesn’t matter at all if you are to be respected. That is all about identity.
However, it didn’t end there.
The tension in our home only subsided after some time. She started acting differently, quieter and more considerate, but she didn’t apologize overtly. Her wheels were a spinning but I held back from pushing her.
Several days later, after my daughter had a breakdown.
While she was looking through her phone on the kitchen table, she abruptly threw it to the ground and cried.
“What took place?” “Well done,” I remarked, putting down my coffee and asking.
After a hesitation of a moment, she turned her phone around and took it up. It was posted by one of the popular students in school. Image with the caption: An image of me from the occasion, wearing my job uniform.
Imagine your child’s school, you arrive and look like this.
The remarks below? brutal. Emojis of laughter. Jokes about “low standards” and “dirty hands”
My heart fell. I had a thick skin but it was not for me it was for my baby.
My spouse also witnessed it. She went still as she read the comments. She became settled with something profound to her face. Also she picked a phone up and began typing without a word.
A few minutes later she shared something on her personal page.
The dude in the photo? He is my spouse. Thank God our children couldn’t have asked for a father more devoted and hardworking. Not only does he bring the love, he may be filthy when he gets home, but he never leaves without love. That is something no designer outfit can ever purchase.
Turning the phone around, she showed me it.
“I should have said this a long time ago,” she muttered.
Before embracing her I gave her a long look. I knew she actually saw me for the first time in a long time.
The post went viral. My parents started to motivate me, leave comments, share the personal stories of sacrifices to carry out blue-collar jobs. Even some of the school mothers who had disparaged me began to shift their opinions.
What about our daughter? However, the next day, she did enter school and she had her head somewhat higher.
It has nothing to do with the way you dress, because respect is absent. It has to do with how you identify to society.
And true love? It even perseveres even in difficult situations.
If you felt this story, remind someone that no work that supports a family should be an embarrassment.