Holiday Hangups....and other thoughts..

It's that time of the year again... Time for everyone to get offended!! I'm so tired of hearing about the whole "Happy Holidays" Vs. "Merry Christmas" debate. Who cares??!!??

Here's the thing... When you chose to go against the "norm", you don't have the right to get offended when people don't bow down to you. For example...

We don't celebrate Halloween. I know.. crazy right?? **Side Note** This was the first year we allowed our children to celebrate and it was last minute.. Seriously last minute, as in, we were buying costumes on Halloween and changing them in the store. I know... it's satanic and I get that.. However, that would mean that we wouldn't be allowed to watch Sofia the first or ANY Disney movie. All of them contain some type of Magic and garbage like that... If they don't contain magic they contain a ton of other religious stuff like in Mulan. That said... **Back to our original blog post. **

If we choose NOT to celebrate Halloween, Do I have the right to get offended that everyone else does?? NO!! When I go to the stores, People say, "Happy Halloween " To me and I say, "Thank you, Have a great time"...The end!! People will ask my children, "What are you going to be for Halloween?" My children respond, "We don't celebrate.".. The looks on peoples faces are funny. It's like we've punched them in the gut. Then they decide they're going to school me on how fun it is.. I'm not getting into a religious , theological or parenting debate with people. They say, "Oh it's just fun." and I respond, "Oh yea, we have our own fun."... Still......I don't get offended.

When you look at the history of America, you will see that we're built on Anglo-Saxon Beliefs. Yup.. That's Christian beliefs. Whether you're Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Mennonite... We're all considered "Christian". Our country was founded on religious freedom, so you have every right NOT to celebrate Christmas... That's what freedom is.

Now, here's the flip side to that. IF you decided NOT to celebrate a holiday that over 80% of Americans celebrate, you have NO RIGHT to get offended with people who say, "Merry Christmas". Jewish friends and family members never got offended. I don't get offended when people say "Happy Hanukah" To me. As for Kwanza.. I never even heard of Kwanza till a few years ago and that has more to do with the internet and social media. No ONE I know celebrates it and that includes my black friends.

Like anything else, when you choose to do something that isn't "socially normal", you have to realize that you're going to raise questions AND people aren't going to bend to your beliefs and excuse us for not being politically correct and sensitive in our own country.

We choose to homeschool.. this is completely again social norm, Do I expect people to bend for me?? No. In fact, there isn't a day or shopping trip that goes by where someone doesn't say something to my children like, "Oh no school today?" My kids usually reply, "We already did our school work" Or "I'm homeschooled". Which of course gets a ton of different responses. I've always had a positive experience with that... but if I were to get offended like people do today, I could say, "What business is it of theirs?" , "NOT EVERYONE Goes to conventional school!", "You need to be more sensitive to the fact that not every child goes to a brick and mortar school. Homeschooling has become more common now and EVERYONE Knows about it."
I like being different... it doesn't bother me, but I get to enjoy it because I don't get offended.

Enjoy your choices.. Enjoy the fact that we live in a country that allows those freedoms... Stop getting offended and Merry Christmas!!!!

Have a Blessed Holiday,
The Paulsen Family