Rebuilding Rob

Daily writing prompt

What is one question you hate to be asked? Explain.

View all responses

As a teacher, I like to tell my students “The only dumb question is the one you don’t ask.” However, even I have found exceptions to that rule throughout my life.

Where did you get your red hair from?

When I was a kid, I had red hair. I mean, it was ORANGE. With fair skin and freckles, I was the poster boy for gingers. My parents both had brown hair; so whenever we were together in public, I was asked “Where did you get your red hair from?” Like a circus animal, I would give the answer that my parents trained me to give with deadpan delivery: “From the milkman.”

And everybody LAUGHED, except for me.

At the tender age of 5, I didn’t get the joke. People were laughing. But I didn’t feel like they were laughing WITH me. In my kindergarten brain, they were laughing AT me. I know better now, obviously, but I actually built up some resentment toward my parents about this. I felt like I was set up to be the butt of a joke. I’m sure it explains a lot of the insecurities that follow me to this day.

Is it really red all over?

As I got older, people started asking “So is your hair red, like everywhere?” When i was a younger man, I thought this was a truly stupid thing to ask. But then I learned that The Old Man had a beard in his 20s that came in red. Maybe this was a legit question after all.

Of course, its possible that when a girl asked me this, it was some bad attempting at flirting – like question “Do the curtains match the drapes?” If that was the case, I was totally oblivious to it. Sometimes, just to really freak somebody out, I say something really snarky like “It’s actually green down there”.

(Dis)Honorable mentions

• “What religion are you?”
• “What nationality are you?

I understand that many people ask those questions because the are legitimately curious or don’t know. What annoys me are the people who ask those questions like they are some kind of character litmus test.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:

• The Extra Day: A Ten-Year Memory
• Of Training Wheels and Christmas Lights
• Charity Starts at Home (And I’m Back in My Childhood One)
• The Muscle of Empathy
• Where Do We Go From Here? Five Years Since January 6.

The article “Really Stupid Questions ” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.