No offense, but...

I feel like we live in a world where people get offended waaaaaaay too easily. For example, if I say something about how I choose to parent my kids in a certain way, or how I absolutely loved my epidurals with every single child, or that I think that "wear pants to church day" was completely stupid (not the actual wearing of pants, but all of the hullabaloo about it) , 5 billion people jump down my throat about how I shouldn't judge people who have different views as I do.
Wait.
What?
Let me get this straight. Me voicing my opinion offends you?

And these are just a few examples. There are so many things I would like to say, without the intention to offend, but I can't, just in case someone's feelings might get hurt. I say, we all just buck up, realize that not everyone thinks the same way we do, and stop being a bunch of pansies. I do this sometimes too. I'll come home from a photo shoot and excitedly show Weston some pictures. If he has any sort of critique about them, I get all pouty. He isn't trying to be mean. He's just trying to give me pointers on how to improve my skills. Why do I get so offended? Probably because I'm a little insecure.

**side note: Have you noticed that I like to use my self as an example in a lot of my blog posts? Yeah. That's because, heaven forbid, I use a generic example and offend someone. Someone is probably offended as we speak by the examples I used in the first paragraph!!**

The worst part is, we are cultivating this type of thinking in our children. In little league sports, we give every kid on every team a trophy at the end of the season just so no one feels bad. Whyyyy?  Is patronizing the losing team really helping our kids? No! All it is doing is teaching them false principles.
"It doesn't matter if you didn't win one game this season! Here's your trophy! You're number one! YAAAAY! Everyone's a winner!"
Well, guess what. In the real world, when you don't come in first place, you don't get a prize. Not everyone is a winner. And that's ok! I want to teach my kids that they aren't the best at everything and they probably won't win at everything, but as long as they are trying their best and having fun that's all that matters. I want them to have a tough skin and realize that the world is a tough place! Not everyone is going to care about their feelings, and sometimes people will even disagree with them (shocker!!!). AND THAT'S OK!

Also, why is it when someone is doing something that, not only we don't agree with, but really isn't even necessarily good or ok, we still feel like we can't say anything?? I know so  many people who get taken advantage of in different ways because they don't want to make someone feel bad. For example, they do things for people without any form of compensation just because they are nice people, and then they get walked all over because they are too nice to say no! (you know who you are *wink wink*) And no one will say anything to the offending party for fear of making them feel bad, and they keep on doing what they're doing because they think it's ok.
BAH!
It's so frustrating!

Anyway, moral of the story is: We are all different people who think differently and view the world differently. If someone doesn't have the same beliefs, views, or lifestyle as you, that's ok. If someone tells you that they don't agree with something you're doing/saying, you don't need to go cry into your pillow or post some passive aggressive Facebook status about it. If we all had the same beliefs and thought the exact same way, how boring would the world be? And if no one stood up for what they believed in because they were afraid of offending someone, I'm pretty sure we would all have British accents, and slavery would still be ok, and women wouldn't have the right to vote, etc. etc.

End rant.