I recently posted a picture on my Instagram page. The picture featured a great shot from my living room with my son doing his math homework. In the foreground, you could see my feet resting on the table. This is the point where I was asked a dozen times in 30 minutes if my toes were painted? The answer was clear and right there in the photo. “Yep! They are green!” I responded. This concept seemed to blow the minds of some of my followers and intrigued others. Even though at this time I didn’t feel judged, there have been times recently that I did feel judged by the fact that my toenails were painted. The truth is every two weeks when I’m getting them painted, I get lots of looks from others in the nail salon, as well as in the general public when I rock flip flops.
So why are my toenails painted you ask? Here’s the answer...I went through a divorce at the beginning of this year that was incredibly hard on me and my kids. If you know me or have followed me for any length of time, you know that like any good dad, my kids are my world. Divorce means that my time with them is limited and that time is incredibly valuable to me. I swore at the beginning of the separation that I absolutely would not become a “Disney Dad.” My father-in-law, having gone through a divorce before marrying my motherin-law, gave me some amazing advice years ago without even knowing it. He told me that divorced dads tend to spoil their kids during their weekends and this behavior becomes extremely negative and straining on all relationships. He called it being a “Disney Dad” in reference to every weekend with dad being like being at Disneyland. So one of the first weekends I had my kids I asked Hannah what she wanted to do. She said “let’s get pedicures” and while this is an added expense, it wasn’t an “over the top” request, so I agreed. This wouldn’t be my first pedicure, mind you. They are quite wonderful and I highly recommend this service to anyone and everyone. The second trip to the nail salon with Hannah is when it got serious. The lady told us to pick our colors out and I looked at Hannah and said, “pick our colors out.” She quickly replied, “You wouldn’t!”. Well she was wrong and since that moment I’ve had whatever color she picks out on my toes.
Here’s the thing...I don’t have time for anyone that judges me for having polish on my toes. If someone is willing to pass judgement on me because my toenails are painted, that someone is not anyone that I need in my life. My painted toes are one small thing that belongs to Hannah and me. It’s OUR thing and I couldn’t care less what anyone but Hannah thinks about that. So next time you’re drawing that quick conclusion based on someone’s appearance, just remember this…appearance is simply self-expression, or in some cases self-survival and has zero weight in regards to someone’s character as a human.
(written and proofread by me...don't be upset about the errors...I'm human!)