Triple Play for the Single Mom

by Rebel Bloom

Olive shifted from foot to foot in front of me. I knew parts of her story from Andrew and I knew that with her face bare of makeup Olive looked young. With her eyes as wide with anxiety as they were, she had a baby face. A baby face with a six-year-old. It wasn’t hard to understand what the secretary was judging. It was bullshit. “You’re so young, honey. Just a child yourself.” The woman shook her head and sighed. “Babies having babies.” Olive stiffened against me and just as I was getting ready to say something, she spoke in a lowered voice that was woven with steel. “I’m twenty-one, honey. Despite being a child when I had my son, I still somehow learned how incredibly rude it is to criticize or judge someone for something they can’t change. I’m sure you didn’t consider how a comment like that is just judgmental and unhelpful in every way. Luckily, I cut my teeth on those kinds of comments, so you can’t hurt my feelings. Not everyone who comes in here will have my background, though, so just think about it. Do you really want to be the person to convince a struggling young mom that the world is only made up of shitty, judgmental people?”