Do you think you know me?

Now that my children are involved in various activities, I seem to get the exact same question by the established circle of "Moms" followed by the exact same looks. Particularly, when my teenage daughter randomly decides to support her brother's current activity. One of the "Moms" finally gets the nerve to ask in some I'm trying not to be obvious way "Is that your daughter?" When they get the answer they already knew, it is followed by "I thought she was your sister." Then, "You must have been really young." Immediately, their eyes go straight to my left hand. No, I'm not married. And never have been. I watch their imagination take flight, so I thought it might be useful to re-introduce myself. I am not just the "young" single mom. I am the girl that lived in a trailer park and got pregnant in high school. I am the one that had the crazy, abusive boyfriend. I had the second child with baby daddy #2. Neither bd's are in our lives. No father in my life, but he didn't leave us. He died. Guess you could say he left as he died from not taking care of his health, but not the stereotypical black men don't take care of their kids leaving. He was educated. A pharmacist. A veteran. Also, a cheater. But that's another story. I guess karma is a bitch. Anyway back to me. I spent a lot of time running the streets. I know too much about guns and drugs. I have four tattoos. At one point, even had my eyebrow pierced. I could go on. Confirm all of their assumptions. But that is just a small part of my story. I also have three college degrees. I am an adjunct professor and love to teach. I work at an advertising agency in a director level position. I recycle. I eat mostly organic foods. My children are both straight A students, athletes and artists. They don't talk back, throw fits or act ungrateful. We take vacations to new places every year and I make sure they learn something while we are there. You can find us at a bookstore at least once a week. We read several books a month. I bought a house for my mother. I could go on here too, but you get the point. We are so quick to judge, to assume. As the old saying goes, you should never judge a book by its cover. You don't know what people have been through or what they have accomplished until you get to know them. Take the time to find out. In most cases, you will be surprised.