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He did not just say that
Went to Barnes and Noble last week with my sons. They really like playing with the Thomas the Train set in the children's section, and I really like checking out gossip rags while they do that, so it works out well.
Another mom walked in with her son and baby daughter in her arms. The woman had long, gorgeous hair and a husky voice.
My son walked over to me, stood close and said, "Mommy, I think that looks like a girl."
I looked at the baby, wearing all pink, and answered, "Yep, that's a girl."
He continued.
"But she kind of sounds like a guy," he said.
Horrified, I realized he was talking about the woman with the husky voice. I quickly glanced over but the woman either did not appear to hear Evan or was ignoring this comment.
"No, babe, that's a girl too," I whispered.
Thankfully, the conversation ended there. But that was my first brush with my 3-year-old's brutally honest observations in public. I don't want to muzzle him, but how do I talk to him about keeping this kind of stuff between us?
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Comments
In all situations like this, I think it's best to do a neutral comment that accepts that people are different. So in this case, she obviously looks like a woman but has a lower voice than most women. Something like, "No she's a girl. She just has a different voice than Mommy" or something. If it's soemthing that is hurtful, i.e., calling someone fat, I think there's no harm in gently but firmly correcting your child in public. Something like "People come all in sizes. We don't talk about it because not everyone likes to talk about it. " or something like that.
Posted by: amy | December 4, 2007 8:15 PM