So I have to admit, I’m pretty obsessed with all the Real Houswives shows on Bravo TV. Laugh all you want, but turn that shit on and it becomes addicting.—-
As I watch series after series of these housewives bitching and moaning about their lives, I can’t help but to think of the mainly close-minded housewives I have been so lucky to meet in Cincinnati.
Typically, I come in contact with these types of women at my other place of work. I am the first face these women see when they walk into the building. Meaning, I am the first one they have the chance to get an attitude with. Now, I am by no means labeling all the housewives of Cincinnati as being bitches, I am just pointing out the specific instances in which I feel as though they were just that: bitches.
One situation stands out in my mind more than the others. I was working at the check-in desk at the outdoor pool when a woman frantically comes up wanting my attention. I asked her what the problem was. She stated to me that her son was “scared” of some of the other kids. Now this would be understandable if she hadn’t been pointing fingers SPECIFICALLY at the inner-city kids that had rented out the pool for the day. I told her that they had just as much right to rent the facility as the many Catholic schools we get renting the pool. She then said, “It’s not the same thing." How the fuck is it not the same thing? Whether it is an inner-city school or it’s a school like St. Mary’s, the facility welcomes anyone to rent it out.
Of course, I wanted to strangle this woman. But, since I can’t afford to lose my job, I stated that there was no reason for her son to be in fear and that if she had that much of a problem then she could use the indoor pool. This resulted her storming off while her little boy (who, by the way, was only about four years old) followed closely behind her.
I stood there for a second in complete shock. Had she really just told me her son was “scared” because there were kids of different races at the pool? The whole thing just really saddened me. Her son was in no way old enough to make judgments like that, but she was shoving those judgments into his little mind. Now he will probably grow up thinking that only kids of his color are normal. Which is complete and utter bullshit.
This woman is an example of the ignorance I’ve dealt with presently and in the past when it comes to stuck-up housewives. They sit at home feeding their kids all of this crap about money being the only thing that matters and that it is simply not logical to live anywhere but an upscale neighborhood.
Luckily, I was fortunate enough to have a loving and wonderful diversified mother while living in Hyde Park at the same time. She enrolled me in a great Montessori school located in a more diverse neighborhood and always encouraged me to be open to different types of people, religions and cultures. Even though I no longer live in Hyde Park, I feel really lucky to have had an open-minded mother in what seemed like such a close-minded neighborhood.
I’ve also met a lot of mothers that have really taken strides towards keeping their kids' minds open to all different types of people. Such as my friend Frankie. She and her sister grew up in Hyde Park, but their mom really made sure they had an open mind. She enrolled them into schools such as Clark Montessori and Purcell Marian, expanding their world outside of the Summits and Ursulas. It shows that they were brought up different, considering Frankie now works downtown at Findlay Market and her sister Marta lives in the neighborhood of Madison Place. They are great, well-rounded women, as is their mother who brought them up to be this way.
I just wish all mothers would raise their children to be more open to diversity.
