The first time I ever cut my hair pixie short was when I was modeling and I made $2000 doing it. I walked out of that shoot feeling like a much more confident version of myself. I remember getting in the car, looking in the mirrors over and over and running my fingers through my healthy locks. I walked into my boyfriend’s (at the time) house and the confidence was crushed the second his brothers called me Justin Bieber. I vividly remember this incident because if it happened now I would have made a joke about it then dumped the boyfriend on the spot for not sticking up for me (heck yes to that 30 year old woman confidence).

Fast forward to me having children of my own and growing out everyone’s hair whether they are boys or girls. This is not a Craig choice. This is not a Taylor choice. We have babies, they have really great dark hair when they are born until it starts to fall out, then we shave it and let it grow. Jax went through a phase of wanting short hair so Craig and him cut their hair at the same time in similar styles. CWB got a lot of back lash for it from fans but he also got a lot of love. Jax liked the response from his peers at school with short hair but then he went to the BMX track, a ton of the other boys still rocked long hair and he missed his. Jax now loves his man buns and we have taught him to tell kids who react negatively to make light of it or say “You are welcome to your own opinion”. Gray, our two year old son, let us shave the sides because his hair is so thick but he will not let us touch the top long parts. He may throw a fit when I have to brush him but if you ask to cut it he will give you a stern “No!”. Dakota Lynn cries every time we cut anyones hair and wants hers to grow like a princess. We just shaved Boston’s sides this week and once he gets a little fuzz growing back we will buzz the whole thing and see what happens. All of this to say, once they grow into their own preferences we listen and let them do whatever they want to their hair (with the exception of coloring :).

What hurts my heart is when someone assumes wrong. My dad always said assuming typically makes an “Ass” out of “U” and “Me” and there is something to that! We recently had a family situation where Jax was in a class without us for an hour and during the entire class a teacher insisted that he was a girl no matter how many times he corrected her. He had on black cowboy boots, a suit jacket, black jeans and a sweet belt buckle along with a name tag that said “Jaxon”. She called him “her” for an hour in front of kids he was just getting to know. I am so proud of him for standing his ground and continuing to correct her no matter how humiliated he might have felt. When we went to pick him up he immediately told us what happened at the door. Craig addressed it kindly with her and her response was “Whatever works”. Absolutely wasn’t an acceptable response and believe you me they got an email after that. I basically had to quietly pull Craig Wayne Boyd out of there by his long hair and we all calmed down in the car.

My point in saying all of this is we have no problem when people make a mistake and use the wrong pronoun on one of our long haired boys or our daughter dressed in black. There have been countless times at dinner that one of my kids has been called the wrong thing and corrected it themselves or Craig and I have…politely. On social media it happens daily and our #yallers always come to the rescue to clarify. I understand when you go against the grain some might not always approve. I respect that back in the day long hair wasn’t as common on men or might have had a negative connotation. People often come back with “they are just so beautiful” when our son is mistakenly called she and what better a compliment than to hear that! One day when they start growing facial hair it will become a non-issue but until then I would like to kindly suggest that if you are ever unsure just skirt your way around it.

Parenting is so stinking tough. This has been an ongoing situation I have been learning to navigate for the past 5 years and will continue to work on so that my munchies don’t feel wrong for having a personal preference about their appearance AND so they don’t feel ashamed for preferring to be a little different. What are some parenting challenges you have faced???

So tonight I tried to steer clear of Corona and talk about a parenting issue that happened most often when we were out and about. Honestly, for the time being I am trying to find anything to talk about other than Covid-19 . Any “normal” topics we had about being parents before we were confined to our homes with minimal human interaction would be welcome! Love you all, wash yo hands and try and stay as healthy and happy as possible during this crazy madness. I might blog in a week, I might blog tomorrow to be honest some days I am inspired and others I am trying to keep from feeling overwhelmed. If there is anything you want to chat about or hear funny stories about let me know that might be just the inspiration I need. Keeping this blog does more for my personal health than you know and I just thank anyone reading. xoxox