Karens

Anyone else tired of Karens???

Can I talk to the manager? 

I am!  I struggle with Karens.  I struggle with knowing how to respond to Karens.  I have spent most of my life feeling inadequate.  I have never seemed to measure up.  I think more people feel this way than are willing to admit.  Karens are a reminder of this inadequacy.  They are the mean girls that told us we weren't good enough while we were growing up and are here to remind us we still aren't.  

The house with an over grown yard.  We closed on the 10th and moved in on the 27th.  Our mower didn't  arrive until several days later. Ugh!

Neighborhood Karens like to tell you that your bushes need to be trimmed or that your grass is being cut 1/4" too short (sometimes the Mr. Karens have to deliver the message) or maybe you have weeds growing in the lines of your driveway.  Make peace with the Mr. Karens.  They need you!  They live with the Karens!

Does this look like a person concerned about paperwork???

Administrative Karens get a little power, and they run with it!!!  A couple of years ago, I had to have a lipoma removed from my forehead.  I had tried to find someone to watch Macy for a day and half so I could get my stitches removed and a follow up appointment in a town 6 hours away. My husband was overseas. I couldn't find anyone.  I went to the school to take Macy out.  One of her friends was in the office working as an aid.  I was standing with my back towards her.  She was excited to see me and told me that Macy had said she was getting to go to Kansas City.  I turned around and said, "But did she tell you how beautiful I was?"  See, I was standing there with a huge bandage on my forehead and two of the worst black eyes you have ever seen!  The friend really laughed.  The secretary of the school who was a real rules Karen tells me, "If you knew before today, you should have come in here and filled out paper work to take her out of school!"  Are you kidding me???  Do you not see me???  I wanted to scream at her that this was the first day I had worn clothes let alone thinking about paperwork!  I did my best to find someone to watch her.  She was only missing a day and a half of school.  She is a 4.0 student as a middle schooler.  She's never been in trouble.  Why am I getting the third degree??? This was the only school in the district that I had ever had trouble with this issue.  I took a deep breath and said, "I have accepted the fact over the last 4 years that when I walk through the doors of this building that I am not going to do anything correctly and have moved on. I think you should too."  Silence, followed by sputtering, ending with the nicest most gracious Karen I have ever met. Call them out.  Being a non-Karen, doesn't mean being a doormat!!!!  

My mask is better than yours, and if you don't have one like mine, you have have the wrong one and yours is stupid! 

Online Karens tend to be nastiest.  There is nothing to hold them back.  They are not afraid to tell you off, cuss you out, tell you that you are stupid, express their moral superiority, etc. Humanity is thrown out the window when they communicate with a keyboard.  These Karens are reveling in the COVID-19 crisis.  They have mask superiority, they sanitize better, their stats are better than your stats, and they care more about life than you do.  I hate the language - if you don't do these things you are stupid.  Maybe I do.  Maybe I don't, but I would never presume to tell people they are stupid if they have a differing opinion.  Plus, you don't know other people's circumstances.  Not that Karens care about that.  They only care that everyone thinks and does as they do.  Ugh!  I recently found out on the Nextdoor  App that if you are willing to call them out on the bullying/nastiness that things can (hopefully) change.  

The Old Lady Karen. You will never measure up so don't even try.  

Old lady Karens, God Bless them! Yes, I get that the moniker is meant for Gen-Xers, but the Silent Generation and the Boomers have plenty of their own!  No one has ever done anything better or made a better decision about anything than an old lady Karen.  They are only too happy to point out your flaws.  You won't go to the right church (if you do go to the right church - you will worship incorrectly), you aren't raising your kids correctly, you aren't eating right, you aren't exercising correctly, you don’t wear the right clothes, you don’t decorate your house correctly, etc. Their words are laced with unfiltered criticism and judgement.  One eyebrow is usually raised. It is more important for them to be right or better than the feelings of those they are addressing. Feelings of their addressees are inconsequential to them. Old lady Karens just need to be heard and reminded that there is more than one way to skin a cat.  Doing things differently is ok!!! They just want to remain relevant.  They need to be reminded of their worth.  Take some deep breaths.  Old lady Karens will give you a bumpy ride.  

Pray for the Karens.

I'm pretty sure that I used to be a Karen.  Maybe I still am. I hate that about myself.  I will spend the rest of my days making up for it.  I see how miserables Karens are.  We are all Karens to a certain degree.  Most of us vent to our spouses or besties.  We don't do it to people's faces.  We get frustrated when we don't feel people are doing things the way WE think they should be done.  I feel sorry for the Karens. The only thing they have to look forward to is criticizing and judging others.  Their greatest joy is to point this out.  They are so caught up in the judgement and criticism that they miss all the goodness in front of them.  Have joy.  Have fun.  It isn't against the law.   Pray for the Karens!  Pray they learn mercy and grace.  Pray that they find something fulfilling in their own lives so they stay out of ours. Most of all, pray that the Karens find kindness.  

Karen Checklist

This meant in all fun. Please accept it for what it is...a joke! 

1. If you feel the need to lecture people on their life choices (or masks in current times), you might be a Karen.
2. If you feel the need to give people unsolicited advice, you might be a Karen.
3. If you lay awake all night contemplating your reply to an online thread so that everyone knows you were right, you might be a Karen.
4. If you think the isles in the grocery store are intend only for your use, you might be a Karen.
5. If you live in yoga pants that are two sizes too small even when we aren’t in lockdown, you might be a Karen.
6. If you have mastered the evil eye, you might be a Karen.
7. If you feel compelled to talk to a manager over the smallest injustice, you might be a Karen.
8. If you drive a large SUV with a huge degree of difficult, you might be a Karen.
9. If you call the cops every time your neighborhood kids are acting "suspicious", you might be a Karen.
10. If you think the rules apply to everyone but you and feel the need to enforce them, you might be a Karen.

     

*** I have no problem with people that are actually named Karen.  I am just using the current vernacular.