another little funny…
grandpa is here to visit over the weekend… will have pics from our super fun day up soon. i hope. but here’s a little tidbit from tonight as i was getting the kids ready for bed.
mikey: grandpa’s not old.
mommy: how do you know?
mikey: because he doesn’t use one of these [held up his arm and curved his fingers to make a cane-shape].
allie: yeah, because he doesn’t walk like this [hunches over, pretending to walk with a cane].
mikey: those are old people but our grandpa doesn’t walk like that, so he’s not old!
i bet grandpa would’ve been glad to hear the kids’ assessment of him! 
but last night, phil was talking to mikey and their conversation went something like this–
mikey: someone brought a big white dog to our class but i didn’t pet him b/c i only like molly.
daddy: who’s molly?
mikey: the little dog that the old woman walks with on our street. i pet her all the time and she’s very nice and calm.
daddy: how can you tell she’s old?
mikey: because her hair has white and her face is old.
daddy: is mommy old? (WHY is he dragging ME in to this, i wonder?!)
mikey: yes.
mommy: what?! you think mommy’s OLD?!
ha ha! 
but to mikey’s credit, he soon after recanted his statement because he misheard phil and thought he was still talking about our neighbor lady. he then corrected himself and said to me, “no, mommy, you’re not old because your hair is black and your face is not old.”
i feel much better.
though i do realize that we need to be talking some more about the words we should use and the words we should NOT use when we talk about people. which brings to mind one more random funny. this one was about five months ago, but still cracks me up every time i think about it.
we were all sitting in a cafeteria when a little person walked by our table. i could see mikey’s eyes grow wide and follow the person as she continued walking. and i inwardly cringed wondering what he was going to blurt out because i had JUST mentioned to phil how mikey’s been noticing people’s different traits and the matter-of-fact ways he’s been describing them to me and none too quietly (for instance, “the man with the brown face”, or “wow mommy, she has a BIG stomach! 
). so mikey turns to me and says in awe, “mommy, that person is… low to the ground!”
ok, so how does one go about teaching tactfulness to a five-year-old boy?
8 Comments
mamajoyjoy
did grandpa hear about this yet?”low to the ground.” he’s quite perceptive.yeah, how do you teach kids? they’re quite truthful sometimes. and i don’t know about your kids, but M likes to stare at anyone that doesn’t quite fit into what she normally sees…like if a dad at storytime is kinda big, wears overalls, and has a ton of tattoos all over.
mtsai
@mamajoyjoy@momaroo – ha ha! hmm, i think I’D have a hard time not staring at big-overall-tattoo dad myself!
jiNNie_g
Low to the ground… hahaha. Was he trying to say the person was short?
joesee22
LOL…kids are too cute!! I think Matthew picks up on the fact that my Dad is older than my Mom. (Dad has some white hair.) Because he always lets Dad sit on the sofa while he is playing but my Mom doesn’t get the preferential treatment!Teaching tact to kids…hmm….not sure.
joesee22
To be honest…”low to the ground” is pretty tactful for a little kid
MominIreland
LOL!!!
gr00vy_mama
“low to the ground”! heheheheheh that’s funny.
lschnell
I wonder what kinds of conversations Mikey and Jenna would have about people. Jenna’s been noticing people’s traits a lot more lately too! For instance, she saw a lady with a rather large “tooty” the other day when we were out and mentioned it to me. Thankfully, we were out of earshot range, but not by much!! She’s also said things like, “they’re old” at restaurants. Oh the things we moms have to teach our kids about life…