I'll be in a cold, cold grave before I call my kids "babes" in any context...
Exibit A:
Pepper: "Where do burglars sleep, since they don't have a place of their own?"
Kind of made me think about one's assumptions. To wit: I just assumed I always understood that burglary was not necessarily about need! More about asshat/dickwads with no respect for property/boundaries/values... I think I *might* have given a *teensy* speech about the difference between the homeless and asshat/dickwads. And I *might* have chosen more age-appropriate adjectives.
Exhibit B (OK, tonights are both Pepper's. Most of the way-out ones are):
Pepper: "When I grow up, I'm going to let my kids watch Hannah Montana"
[That's me: Cold, hard mom. Don't let the kids watch HM. "Beeeyotch!!!"
They'd say that if they knew that it would describe exactly how they feel about
it. It's not really a huge deal. It rarely comes up. The TV, if it's on at that
time of night will either have a movie or a Wii game on it (maybe Treehouse TV,
but that is becoming more and more rare)]
My response: "When you grow up, I'M going to MAKE your kids watch Hannah Montana". The return look said "what are you gettin at?" Oh yeah... messin' wit' da coconut...
Posts
So she hasn't yet encountered any homeless people on the street? I guess she doesn't hang out in those neighbourhoods.
ReplyDeleteWhen we go to any of the areas with a lot of vagrants about (all over our city, not just the core area downtown) the kids see these people, but so far haven't asked many questions about them.
phew! loaded questions. Rather, I suppose it's the answers in my head that aren't out yet that spawn new ones in my head that are more loaded...
ReplyDeleteIt seems that mine would be like yours: they have seen the vagrants, street corner pan-handlers & squeegie kids but as the lovely innocents they are, they don't see people as different by appearance: more scruffy or less scruffy (show them a dude - or dudette - with a purple mohawk and chains out of his nose on the other hand and sit back & listen to the joyous "commentary"!)
I imagine the questions might be accelerated if we passed someone actively panhandling on the sidewalk but, I guess because of our car-centred family, it very rarely happens (plus most of our errands are structured around one of us NOT having kids with us).