Monday, October 27, 2008

Teaching moment with a 4-year-old

Sara: "Mommy, am I white?"
Mommy: "Well, we are kind of whitish, beigey, pink."
Sara: "And our new baby will be brown?"
Mommy: "That's right."
Sara: "Well, our new baby won't match."
Mommy: "The new baby may not match our skin, but he/she will match our family in other ways. The new baby will have brown eyes and black hair just like Daddy. You and me have the same skin, but look at how we are different - what is different about our hair?"
Sara: "You have straight hair and mine is curly!"
Mommy: "People come is all different shapes and sizes, that is what makes us all special."

1 comment:

Janice said...

Perfect!! Simply put and to the point.
At some point I'm sure I will be having a similar conversation. My son brought home an old Dr. Seuss book about Dr. Doolittle going to Africa to help the monkeys. In the illustrations, the Africans were in their traditional tribal clothing and their faces were painted, etc. My son thought they looked scary (unfortunately) and at one point he said to me, "Mum isn't our little sister going to come from Africa?' I told him that he was correct but that she would likely look more like the two little girls down the street. I think he was relieved.