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Wrong Tattoos, Minidresses, and How I Need to Use the Internet

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In 1999 the Internet was a strange thing I didn’t understand.

Computers had only recently started to be required to type and submit assignments in high school when I graduated that year.  Though chat rooms existed, I hadn’t discovered them.  My little brother, 2.5 years younger than me, had a computer in his room and used it to ‘chat’ with his friends.  I had no idea how he was doing that.  My cellphone was still about the size of a brick.  When I started college that fall, I went in the week before like everyone else to pick up my schedule.  No online login required!

This was the same year DH went to Basic Training.  I lived in a city with no regular force base.  My family was not military.  What I knew about it could be summed up in the reminiscing of my mother in law as she looked back on the years before my father in law retired.

Also: MASH.  Everything I knew about the army could be summed up by MASH.
Unfortunately, Dh is not American, it’s not the 1950’s and life isn’t like TV.

I couldn’t ‘Google‘ to learn more.  Google was a Beta version of something before I knew was a Beta version was.
I actually took a couple books from the library but they were all from the 1970s.

So when I walked into the tattoo shop the week after Dh enlisted, all I had was a picture I had traced from a movie cover.  I was going to get it tattooed on my….ahem…. backside.  It was to be a gesture in love.  I wanted Dh’s last name inside.

The picture looked something like this

Now, if you’re Canadian and know anything about the military, you already see the problem.
Don’t spoil it for the rest of the class just yet.

The tattoo artist was mostly just relieved that his appointment, the one that said only ‘dog tags: ass’ was not on a 250lb hairy guy, but still told me he just didn’t want to tattoo the name of a boyfriend onto an 18 year old girl.
There was wisdom there.

I said fine, I would add the name once we were married.  And 45 minutes later, I walked out no worse for wear with a patch on my backside.

(For the record, 14 years later I never have added a name.  I thankfully can’t actually see the tattoo that looks like a keychain on my butt).

Let’s jump forward to that spring.

It’s 2000 and Dh’s Regiment is having a special party for their 100 year birthday.  Dh tells me to find a dress for a semi-formal occasion.  I have never been to a semi formal occasion.  I want to impress his collegues I have never met before.  I am 19.

I buy something that looks like this:



Except smaller. And white.  

I wish I could tell you I am joking right now, but I’d be lying.

The beauty of it having been 13 years ago is there are no incriminating Instagram photos to show you.

What is the point of these horrible confessions?

My friends, had the Internet existed in my world 13 years ago, I would have known two things.

One, Canadian Dog Tags look like this:  

http://www.savemoresportstore.ca/accessories/dog-tags.html
And coochie flashing dresses, well, they are not the proper attire to meet your husband’s co-workers.

Really, that should be common sense, but the Internet would have helped me, who apparently lacked that.

But there are also two ways I could have learned that information.
I could have had someone, gently and with their own heart reminded of the mistakes they have made and the immaturity they may once have shown, show me what Canadian dog tags look like, and help me find a different picture.
And when I asked on a facebook page or group about a dress, I could have had older wives give me sound advice about the classiness that exudes when you dress appropriately but beautifully.  Maybe someone could have offered to come shopping with me, or send my links to pictures of appropriate dresses like the ones they had seen when they had been to events.
But then, there’s the other way.
 
The other way is the way the Internet seems to work.
Where someone would have called me out for being completely useless for not knowing what my boyfriend’s dog tags look like and mocked me for choosing to have them tattooed.  Then they could have had an in depth argument on social media about how it’s lame to define yourself by you significant other’s job, and probably a lengthy and heated discussion about how I didn’t get to have opinions about anything to do with the military because I was too new to understand.
I’m sure there would have been many wives listing their deployments, postings and hardships in a veiled attempt to one up the other wives experiences, and eventually I would have left feeling like I would never be experienced enough to have another opinion around the group ever again.
And when I posted an excited link to my dress, I could have had 20 comments in 4 minutes about my self esteem, my obvious immature attitude and my disrespect for tradition.  By 10 minutes of posting I would have had to take my picture down because of the infighting, in tears and probably having decided to just stay home rather than risk wearing something else offensive.

______________

I am as guilty of as everyone of breaking the Internet with my judgement, my need that everyone understand how much harder my life was/is than theirs, and my belittling of other people’s concerns.

I try, I try so hard, but I fail.

But reading over some support groups and pages lately, I thought of a few things that might help when I’m typing:
 
1.  That’s a Real Person
The interwebs are not randomly generating posts.  A real person posted a real issue/question/concern.  If you wouldn’t say it to their face, don’t type it on the screen.
2. No One Wants To Hear From a Fictional Superwoman

You’re struggles might seem bigger than theirs.  Not every situation requires you tell them that.  Ask yourself how sharing all your own past is going to help them in theirs right now.

 
3. People Need To Hear The Truth
If someone writes me and says their newly enlisted husband won’t have to go to war because he’s an ideological pacifist, it’s OK to tell them that’s bullshit.
I needed to know what Canadian Dog Tags looked like and why I shouldn’t wear a painted on dress to a semi-formal event.
Don’t ask a question unless you want to hear the truth of the answer, and opinions that are different than your own.
Don’t give an answer unless you are doing so with the desire to help the person asking the question and not with a desire to cut them down.
 
4. You Have Made Bad Choices Too.
You may not have a tattoo on your ass or a past dress that could fit in your clutch, but you have been young.  You have made bad choices.  You have panicked about things that weren’t that important and you have believed things that weren’t the truth.
Remember that.
Always.
As for me, I am going to remind myself of the girl in the dress that was small and sheer enough to show the tattoo of American dog tags that I wore to my Canadian husband’s first military banquet every time I press that ‘comment’ button.
She would have wanted it this way.  

 

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reccewife

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19 COMMENTS

  1. Melissa | 22nd Oct 13

    I would really love to see this posted on some of our support sites! So well said. Thank you!!

  2. Vanessa | 22nd Oct 13

    THANK YOU!!!

  3. Tanis | 22nd Oct 13

    love it!

  4. Poekitten | 22nd Oct 13

    Yes, Yes, YES! I hate the spouse groups and how negative they are and how mean the a lot of the wives are. I know there are wives that aren't mean but they aren't there and they are a lot harder to find.

    Also, those groups show my why we (the US but maybe Canada too?) have issues with our kids being bullies. They are learning it from US, the adults. We're the ones to blame.

  5. Allie | 22nd Oct 13

    Thank you for posting this. The Internet can be a cruel place sometimes! I'm glad there wasn't Facebook or huge social media drives when I was in high school!

  6. Blythe | 22nd Oct 13

    So I know that now a days I could just as easily Google what I should wear to a function with my husband, but it seems like you would be more knowledgeable and honest than Google. Christmas is coming up and I am assuming there will be something or other that I will have to go with him to. (I am still a little new to being a wife and attending anything other than his mug in at the mess) What would you advise?

  7. Kim | 22nd Oct 13

    Hmm, well, depending on what he does, there might be an officer's mess dinner (assuming he's an officer from your post about 'mug'. I'm not sure what that is so I think maybe it's an officer thing. Officers and NCOs are the 2 groups that have mess events. NCMs do not.).

    A 'mixed' mess dinner means wives are invited to attend.
    It's always been my rule of thumb that I should dress related to how they dress. So if they are in mess kit, which is formal, than I dress formal. Mess dresses are generally supposed to be floor length. This used to be a mess rule, now it's more a 'strong suggestion' :). If you find a floor length dress you love and are comfortable in, buy it now and make it your mess dress! That's what I did. Thankfully we usually have new people and no one sees me in it too many times :). Depending what your husband does and where he is posted, there might be several of these events for you to attend a year, they may be one or none.

    If it is simply a dinner or evening at his mess, as him what the dress code is. Average non-mess dinner events at the mess are generally semi-formal. No jeans, coctail/summer dresses (of reasonable length of course 😉 or dress pants and blouse would be appropriate for this.

    If it's a family Christmas party, than casual is completely acceptable, but keep it modest (I'm assuming you are smart enough to do that anyways, but just in case). Jeans and a sweater would fit just fine.

    Have fun!

  8. Kim | 23rd Oct 13

    Ahahahaha JP, you made my husband actually call and say 'who asked for an ass picture?'. I almost died laughing! I explained your honourable intentions and he had a good laugh :). Thanks for visiting friend!

  9. Kim | 23rd Oct 13

    I actually thank Jesus almost daily there was no social media when I was a teenager. Oh the incrimination!

  10. Kim | 23rd Oct 13

    Oh,. we have bullying here, too, and you're right. Adults can be even more cruel. It's scary

  11. Kim | 23rd Oct 13

    Thank you Tanis!

  12. Kim | 23rd Oct 13

    🙂

  13. Kim | 23rd Oct 13

    Thanks Melissa 🙂

  14. chambanachik | 23rd Oct 13

    Oh my goodness, yes. I just love you, Kim. 🙂

    And also, bits of this are some of the reasons I'm not on Facebook anymore. Just not worth it.

  15. J Gyuricska | 23rd Oct 13

    GREAT post! There's also the margarita rule – being real means you got to take it with a grain of salt.
    An old navy officer told me I should be wearing a floor length ballgown for a formal Officer's Mess dinner. Know how much those cost?! If I'd shouted out to the interweb, someone would have told me to breathe, take it with a grain of salt, and that hemlines don't really matter. And they don't. An older woman than I, who's been to a million and a half of these dinners, wore a lovely miniskirt.

  16. Anita | 27th Oct 13

    Great post Kim, I am thankful there was no Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc when I was young (younger). I shudder to think of the internet past I may have had!

  17. Melissa | 28th Oct 13

    Great post, Kim!

  18. Rheanna | 6th Nov 13

    Seriously I wish I could see this tattoo
    , in the most non-sexual way of course. This is seriously an amazing post! I need to share it with everyone! Lol

  19. elizabeth | 6th Feb 14

    as usual, you put yourself out there for the greater good. Very admirable. Someone reposted this on twitter and eventough I am not military, this applies in all aspects of life… if you can't say it to their face, don't type it, and speak truth.

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