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Today I was doing a job at a customer's house (assembling a playset). Overheard a conversation between the 3-4ish daughter and the mom.
Daughter: (noticing my hair bundled up at the base of my neck)
Mommy, that man has a ponytail.
Mom: Yes, he does.
Daughter: Why?
Mom: (in a very matter-of-fact tone)
I guess because he wanted it that way.
Acceptance may be moving slowly, but I believe it's gaining ground, and parents like this one are a big step in that direction.
Frodo
I already know this kind of acceptance is very hard sometimes, but I think it's going education that parents pass on to their children, I will not be hypocritical to say, but when I had my 3 or 4 years old, I came to ask my mother, why some men wore earrings and she said they wanted to wear it, but my father always said to me that earrings was a woman's thing.
Nowdays, I'm trying to open my sister's mind, every time I grab her at the school, she is laughing or saying I'm looking like a girl because of the hair (and it isn't all that long already as yours), her other classmates have told me that too, but not all of them and I don't take it to the personal side, being different from the "Society Standards" is sometimes very hard for other people to understand. Slowly, we're making progress around here and she stopped calling me a girl, on the other hand, she's always saying that boys shouldn't have long hair, only girls.
Cheers!
Now in 2014 I get a kick out of this comment. Here on the east coast if you go into a big city you'll find out of 200 women 199 of them will have hair that is shorter than mine. Very few women have long hair now. I've noticed that trend among women the last few years.
It makes me glad to know we have some responsible and accepting parents raising the next generation
Also about the short hair among girls, I have also found that it's becoming more popular, I'm not particularly a fan of short hair, I think only a few can pull it off well.
Also there is nothing feminine about long hair on men... look at the vikings :D they were the manliest men of all and they had some of the longest hair.
Personally I have no preference. Just as for men IMHO women should have the choice of whether to wear their long or short.
I don't know about manliest men of all, Native men are a manly bunch too, but yes the blond Pirates of the North were manly too.
I have to think though, Beringia at sub-zero temps or Iceland that gets above Freezing...and as always in this kind of vein, yes, tongue firmly planted in cheek ;)
Hi Frodo,
Kids are more observant than we give them credit for. This is a nice story and I thank you for sharing it.
Ted
Great conversation. I think that the younger generation is more accepting because they have seen more men with long hair than their parents, and it doesn't seem as unusual to them.
I am part of a small band (I'm a non playing member). Two of the four men amongst us have long hair, and nobody of any age has commented.
About a year ago, I was in the bank, and a girl of about the same age as the daughter of the house you mentioned, standing behind me in the queue waiting to be served said to her mother: "Why has he got a ponytail?" To which the mother said "Because his hair is long." Which answered the question.
Good luck and happy growing.
What I find encouraging in both my instance and yours isn't so much the children's reaction, but the mothers'. In both cases the moms took it as a normal thing that there was a long-haired guy.
Frodo
It's not like long hair on a guy is new. Some guys, like me,
started growing it long in the 1964.
Yes, it's the acceptance by the mothers that is most interesting.
There was long hair about in the 1960s - mine as well as yours! - but it was mainly a young person's style. Nowadays even old guys like me have long hair, so it's spread over all generations as one of may choices for everybody.