Ain’t Your Typical Trailer Boy

Exploring the Stereotype of Mobile Home Living

When most people think of mobile homes, what comes to mind may be very stereotypical. I mean, who hasn’t seen the guy on your local news talking about how a tornado wrecked his trailer with a beer in one hand, while his kid and cigarette are in the other? All while yelling at his spouse and kids in the background.

Mobile homes can have such a negative stereotype. For my family and most folks who live in manufactured homes, this isn’t the case. I didn’t even know mobile homes had a stereotype until I heard Jeff Foxworthy’s, “You Might be a Redneck.”

Mobile Home Owners: Not What You Think!

My parents are hardworking and taught me a lot. My dad showed me the value of using your hands to put in a day’s work. He started from the bottom as a lab tech (lab rat is what they called him) for the state, now he is a Project Manager for another company. My mom started as a Dialysis Technician and is now an LVN working on her RN. She taught me the discipline of studying and what an education can do for you. My Grandmother lives next door and has some of the best work ethics I have ever seen. She wakes up the roosters and puts them to sleep, even to this day. She’s lived out there for close to 20 years now and still works part-time!

Most folks who live in manufactured homes, are the salt of the earth and make up a lot of the working class. They bend over backward to ensure their kids are safe and have food in their bellies, and clothes on their backs. The majority of my friends lived in mobile homes and as active as we were, you never saw us starving or without clean clothes.

Mobile Home Lifestyle & Its Freedoms

The mobile home lifestyle gives us that freedom to truly do what we want on our own piece of property. Many people I know have shops on their property, construction, cars, and even farming. That’s why their lot tends to be full of equipment. What others may see as “junk,” they call the tools of their trade. Others may have their kids’ toys out, but the truth is,  they care more about letting their kids be kids than any potential judgment from a passerby.

Of course, you are going to see shows like, “Trailer Park Boys” and countless videos or memes that just add to the stigmas. The reality is, mobile homes are just not the same anymore, so the stereotype should be a thing of the past. A mobile home doesn’t define the family, it is the family that makes it a home.