Sunday, September 28, 2008

Family Values

Today, Athena went shopping with me at the local warehouse store. As we were leaving, she noticed a young man with dreds pulled back in a ponytail. She commented to me, "Mommy, he has a ponytail!"

"Yes, he does, honey!"

"But boys can't have ponytails! That's silly!"

At this point, I explained to her that boys can have long hair OR short hair... whatever they prefer. Just like girls can have long or short hair.

She thought about this, and started noticing people around us... how they all had different lengths of hair. Somehow, this led into some musings on how to tell boys and girls apart. This transitioned into a conversation that I've been waiting for... but not the conversation you THINK it turned into.

She said something about how people always have a mommy AND a daddy. I told her that actually, sometimes people have two mommies or two daddies. And some people only have a mommy or a daddy. All of those different families are still families... but they all love each other just as much.

She said, "Yes. I have a mommy and a daddy though."

"Yes, you do."

"And you love me."

"I love you so much."

"All mommies and daddies love their kids."

"Yes. All kinds of families all love each other."

"I love you, Mommy."

"I love you too, sweetie."

6 comments:

Jamie said...

You go with your PC self! :-)

eaf said...

It's only scratching the surface. But it's a start.

Ryan P. Wilson said...

If only more of the of the parents I work with daily were able to guide and follow with their children that way... Well, I'd be out of a job, but it would still be wonderful!

Bern said...

Awww... so sweeet!

Chris said...

I always get "Daddy, he/she has a fat belly!" or something like that. The "that's true, but it's not polite to point it out" conversations are pretty tricky too.

Jessica said...

I love how kids just say whatever!

Bob has a friend who is black and when he came over the other day Elizabeth was like, "I don't know that guy. What is the name of that guy who is brown?"
Ooh lord!
I said "His name is Kevin."