Friday Funny...

Kid's Say the Damndest Things Part 1: So on my second day off of the week, a lot of times Logan and I will go to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. He really likes the chocolate sprinkled donuts and I am usually in desperate need of caffeine. (Not unlike any other morning, but this is our little special bond-o time with just mommy and Logan.) He tells daddy (Jayk) to stay at home as we leave and that "we'll be right back, you stay there," and off we go.

I love doing this with him because it's fun one on one time with him and he is always so happy and talkative. As he eats his chocolate sprinkled donut we review our colors by naming each color of the sprinkles. He's fantastic at this and it pleases him so much that all of my attention is purely focused on him and how brilliant he is.

Here comes the first cute but funny moment this morning:

A man walks in who has a shaved head, not completely bald, like daddy just a little fuzz, and is wearing a grey t-shirt and green shorts (which is what Jayk had on before we left). He's tall but not quite as big as Jayk. Logan smiles and says, "Look mommy! It's a daddy!" I smile and tell him, "He LOOKS like daddy, but that's not daddy silly." Logan was obviously embarrassed as this was the first time I ever see him blush. The man was sweet about it and just laughed. No one is really awake at 7:30 AM over the age of 15 in this place.

We go back to naming the colors of his sprinkles. He's ecstatic and is diving face first into his donut rather than picking it up and eating it. I am purely entertained just by watching him because every time he gets chocolate on his face or hands, he asks me for the napkin to clean up. He HATES being messy. Absorbing his surroundings he’s asking me, "What's that mommy?" as he points to everything in the store. Breakfast moves on. We go round and round with posters of coffee, donuts, trash cans etc. He's just taking it all in when...

Funny moment number 2:

A man walks in with his son. Logan, who LOVES other kids smiles huge and says, "Look mommy! It's a boy!" I respond with, "Yes baby, you see another little boy with his daddy?" He responds with, "Yea mommy! It's a brown boy!" My son is three (pictured above). At this point, the man he called daddy almost shoots coffee out of his nose, and I wanted to crawl under the table and hide! The worst part of it is he keeps repeating it! "It's a brown boy mommy! Look!" I was trying so hard not to laugh, I just shoved some donut in his mouth and said, "Good job with your colors baby, but we don't say that. It's not very nice." He just looks at me so hurt and confused and says, "Ok Mommy. I'm sorry." He thought he was just going over colors still! Needless to say, the man and his son did not look upset thank goodness, but it was mommy's turn to blush!

I live in South Carolina. This is not the first time that my son has seen an African American. On the way home I try to figure out a way to explain race to my son. I still think it's hilarious, but at the same time I don't want him to think that he did something horrible by saying that. He was just simply stating a color he saw. He has African American kids in his class at school, so I know it was innocent in the way he said what he said at Dunkin Donuts.

As South Carolina was one of the Confederate states, African Americans are very sensitive here in Charleston still today. I was just fortunate that the man and his son were not the extremely sensitive type and knew that my son did not mean anything negative by what he said. I may not be so lucky next time! Any tips on how to avoid a possible confrontation next time? I'm not exaggerating; they get really pissed down here about that kind of stuff, even if it is a three year old being innocent. Another reason I really dislike the south. Ugh!

On the way home, I tried to explain to him that yes, the little boy's skin was brown however, we do not say that. He's a little boy, just like Logan and that he is just darker than us. I continue to tell him that he might make someone like the little boy sad by saying that. He just looks at me with his big blues and says, "Oh. Ok. I'm sorry mommy." He still feels as though he's done something horrible. Call my son sensitive, but I felt so bad! What do I do if something like this happens again?!

Even though it could have turned out very badly which I'm happy it didn't, I still relish these insanely humorous, innocent moments. ;)

Sorry for the weak start...

Just a quick note to say that there will be more coming from Little Sis. I have two huge presentations for my classes due this weekend that have been absorbing most of my time. Between those and trying to find a new place to live all I have had time to do is comment. There will be more though! I promise!However, I would like to thank everyone for their warm welcomes and comments! It's great to be able to have fun and intellectual conversations with people, since I don't get to get out much anymore! More coming soon...=)

Off to figure out a food production plan for a developing country and a slide presentation on Judaism! It will be fun right?

Who really has control? Parent or child?

I took a break from my project for class to clear my mind some and I found myself reflecting on a conversation I had with a coworker today. To lighten my mood, I sometimes view the entertainment sections of sites like CNN and USA Today. (Sad, but we need some relief sometimes!) As I am reading CNN's Entertainment site, I stumble across good old Alec Baldwin.

In this article there are quotes of a public apology he made about what he said to his daughter in a voicemail. You can even listen to the actual message he left her on the site. In his message, he is raging at his daughter about not answering her phone after what one would assume many attempts to get a hold of his daughter unsuccessfully. He in no way threatens physical harm. He just says he "is going to straighten her out" when he sees her. He is simply upset. His marriage is ending in a nasty divorce and custody suit, and he is losing touch with his daughter. He had a vulnerable moment of despair. Just because he's a celebrity doesn't make him less human.

So I'm thinking, "Why is this poor man being forced to apologize for yelling at his 11 year old publicly?" Sure, he called her a "little pig" who lacks "brains and respect", but seriously, why other than the fact that he is a celebrity is he being forced to apologize?!? I got yelled at worse as a teenager and I never dialed DSS and no one in my family ever had to apologize. I was rotten. So is his 11 year old. He could have said much worse!

As I'm discussing this with a co-worker he is getting passionate about this discussion. He can't believe that a parent would say that to a child of any age and he (Alec Baldwin) was completely pigheaded for saying something like that; and furthermore, his perfect non-divorced parents would never have said anything like that to him as a child or as an adult. This co-worker also has no children. So needless to say, everything he is saying is going in one ear and out the other. "What a jack ass!" is all I'm thinking at this point.

So what? Every parent has those moments where they visualize Rocketstar's picture of duct taping a child to a wall or worse. The only thing that I had an issue with after listening to the voicemail was the fact he called her mom "a worthless pain in the ass." Not good for the kid to hear and only fuels a fire in a nasty divorce and custody suit in my opinion.

But it seems like everyone is so ready to defend children, and pussy foot around everything that our future generations are going to be a bunch of sissies with no real world coping skills or knowledge. We are so quick to shelter our kids from reality now that by the time our younger generations have to face some tragedy like what happened on 9/11/01 or the massacre at Virginia Tech, or the war in Iraq, they won't have a prayer. They will have no coping skills. These kids are going to get picked on, get depressed, and have mommy and daddy sue the school district.

I've heard stories from teachers at middle schools and high schools about how 11 and 12 year olds are giving each other blow jobs and having sex in the bathrooms at the schools, some even in the classrooms when the teacher is not present!

In a society that is so quick to lay blame, my questions are this: What happened to parenting? Why have so many rights been taken from the parents and given to the children? Our kids are learning more from their friends which is essentially the blind leading the blind. That’s pretty scary stuff. And this is who we are going to be relying on in our old age to make good decisions?

It had to start somewhere...

Here we are. Welcome to my first post on blogger.com. Really I am a copycat of my older brother Rocketstar and his friends. What can I say? I've been inspired.

As much as I would love to start things off on a happy note, Rocketstar got me thinking today. What happened at Virginia Tech really bothered me on a lot of levels. In Rocketstar's post however, he made a great point and it was this: "Why don't we react the same when we see headlines about Iraq and the death tolls and bombings there?" He goes on to say the people dying in Iraq are all just as innocent as the students and professors at VT; being killed by mad men and women who are mentally disturbed...and he is right.

However, I am not sure what bothers me more, the fact that there are so many sick and twisted individuals in the world; or that the shooting at Virginia Tech bothers me more than what is going on in places like Iraq.

Perhaps it is because these "kids" were close to my age...well some of the Juniors and Seniors anyway. I feel that I have so much life to live, and so many more reasons to live it; including the main reason who is about 3' 6" tall, and smiles just like I do. But on a real level, I am almost ashamed to say it, the simple fact that things like what happened at VT is much closer to home, both physically and mentally.

I mean look at Iraq, Iran, etc, etc. They have governments based on religion. We in the United States like to think we have separated church and state. In Iraq, they believe women should breed, cook, clean, and do as the men say. In the U.S. a woman would likely kick a man's ass for thinking that way, and sometimes do! We are also more educated in the United States. There are so many factors and differences between the two places. For example, they were not successful governing themselves, so we just decided to step in and do it for them? Look where that's gotten them, and us for that matter. Nowhere.

Violence is everywhere, we can not escape that. But is it possible that maybe when things like the tragedy at VT happen, we focus on that because we feel since it happened in the U.S. we can get some sort of grasp and understanding of it? We can focus on the who, the what, the where, and why because it is local and within reach.

The genocides, and wars get tied up in politics and international laws and judicial systems, and we may never get the whole story of the why. Yes, the shooter at VT is dead, but we still have tangible pieces to pick up. As far as the true reasoning for Bush to bring the U.S. to Iraq, we will probably never get that whole story.

As I read the bios about the victims at Virginia Tech and see the videos and pictures of the mentally disturbed man who ended it all for them, it scares me. I think it scares the rest of the U.S. too. It IS close to home. It makes us all wonder, "What do we do now? Is any school safe? What if it happens in my city? What would I do if it was my child /friend /sister /brother /husband /wife?"

It is hard for us to imagine much less relate to people whose belief system is beyond screwed up. It is easier for us to look at the pictures of the kids and professors at Virginia Tech and see someone we may know, in a metaphorical way. That is why I think Americans don't react the same when the see the headlines in Iraq. We can't see that happening here. We can see our neighbor's son, or our friend, or family member at school...we can't see our women being confined to houses, and letting a single religion rule our country and kids carrying guns in streets and blowing up cars because they think it serves a purpose, I think it all falls back on an old saying (as sad as it sounds): "Out of sight, out of mind."