Accepting People for Who They Are

In my life I have a few people who have personality issues or made decisions that I could either choose to accept or choose not to. For me some things were easier to accept than others. I realized that it was better for me to accept them than to try to change them, or be constantly aggravated over the way they are.

My mother-in-law is a know it all that lacks all tact. Her sense of humor is only funny to her. Some of the things that come out of her mouth are completely rude and totally shocking. She is one of the biggest name callers I have ever met. She calls her husband names, her children names, and even my children names. I used to get extremely angry by this and occasionally I still do, but I don't think the things she says or the way she acts are supposed to be mean. She just thinks she's being funny. I figure I had two choices, I could let her behavior get to me, turning me into a nasty, and bitter person, or I could learn to accept her for the way she was. She wasn't going to change, so I decided to accept it. My family knows that she doesn't mean anything by her comments and behavior, and though it is sometimes hurtful, we just ignore her remarks.

My grandmother is another person that can drive anyone insane. She is queen of guilt tripping, loves to inform me that I'm fat, and is constantly telling my teenage daughters to watch what they eat so they don't loose their cute little figures. When my sister and I were young, she left us in a motel room because we had upset her. Not once, but twice. She has informed me that she didn't want to take me four year old daughter over night anymore because she had seen my grandmother naked and laughed. My grandmother thought it was because my daughter thought she was fat. Yep, that's the first thing that pops into a four year olds mind when they see someone naked. My grandmother has some extremely odd personality quirks. I realized over the last thirty-one years that this was not going to change, so because she is my grandmother I have learned to just accept her for who she is, and try really hard not to let her get to me. I figure that was probably better than telling my seventy year old grandma to shove off.

My mother was transgender for nine years before his death, August 3^rd, 2008. Oddly enough this was actually way easier for me to accept then my mother-in-law or my grandmothers personality issues. My mom was very cool and I enjoyed having conversations with him all the time. Accepting my mom as a man was easier I think because I truly liked him as a person, so the physical change was really no big deal. It was how he felt he should be, his true self. How could I not accept him for who he was?

We meet lots of people over the course of our lifetime. If you wanted everyone to be a certain way you would have a lot of work ahead of you and would most likely be very disappointed in the end. Plus wouldn't it be pretty boring? Accepting people for who they are brings a little color into our lives, it can sometimes be frustrating but wouldn't you want to be accepted for who you are? Make the effort it's worth if just for the interesting people you could meet.