A few weeks ago, Brandon went to Orlando for a business trip. Being the wonderful and thoughtful Daddy that he is, he brought home some presents for Sydney that he knew she would love. One was a fancy Snow White cup, and the other was a set of 8 Disney Princess figurines.
He stayed at home with her the next day after he got home from Orlando while I went to work at HCDC, and said that she literally played with her new princesses all day long. But, she really only played with 5 of them, Snow White, Cinderella, Princess Aurora (or Princess Laura as Sydney calls her), Ariel, and Belle. The other three were consistantly given to Brandon to play with: Mulan, Jasmine, and Pocohantas. We figured for the first few days that she just hadn't seen those movies as much as shes seen the others, so she just didn't know those princesses enough to truly enjoy them. Well, as I was sitting in her room playing 'Princesses' with her one day, the truth came out. As she was divying up who was to play with which princess, I was once again was tossed Mulan, Jasmine, and Pocohantas. This time, though, I decided to inquire.
Me: "Sydney, Why don't you play with these this time, and I'll play with Belle and Aurora?"
Sydney: "No"
Me: "But these Princesses are a lot of fun, I want you to try them out"
Sydney: "No, My don't like those. My want to be these."
Me: "But why don't you like these? They're so fun and so beautiful! Look at their awesome outfits!"
Sydney: "My don't like those, they have brown faces."
Me: Shocked into silence...
I really hadn't ever looked at those certain dolls and made that correlation in my mind that they were all of a different ethnicity, but my 3 year old daughter had! What??!! I was seriously at a loss for words, but it clicked in my mind that "OK, here's one of those teachable moments, here's where I teach my daughter all those important life lessons."
So I start in about that it's not bad to be different, and that they are so beautiful and special, just like all the other princesses. And then I asked her if she knew of anyone in her class at school that had a brown face. She thought really hard, and then mentioned a little boy in her class. We talked about how nice he is, and that he's really no different just because he has a 'brown face'. She agreed that she really liked Trey, and I thought I had done a pretty fantastic job of teaching my child all about the workings of the world. And then she tossed me Mulan, Jasmine, and Pocohantas, and once again said "you be the brown faces".
Looks like I might have a few more lessons to be working on.
Monday, October 27, 2008
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8 comments:
Is it OK that this post made me laugh? Especially at the point where you were shocked into silence.
Oh my gosh, I do believe that is one of the funniest things I have ever heard! Thank you for sharing that!
I love this post. We went to a new church and my sons were 5 & 2. As we are walking through the halls, my 5 year old son says, "Mom, see the boy with the brown face, he's my friend." Loudly. I didn't "shhhh" him because I was in shock. But the way he observed his different color skin. We come from a small town, and there weren't any brown faces in his class. The other church that we came from didn't have anyone with brown faces either. So I think this was his first close encounter with a brown faced person. And we are in the Detroit area. Yeah!
I love your story. Keep teaching her in those teachable moments.
Katy
too funny. You are awesome to make it a teachable moment. Keep it up! :)
I'm leaving a comment because Brandon said you thought you were a bad mother because no one was commenting. So there. Now you're a good mother. (actually, you're a GREAT mother.)
funny crap. I laughed quite a lot, then I cried, then I laughed again. My niece is a racist, thats funny!
Pretty much the funniest thing ever...although the "long hair" is awesome as well. Hope you're doing well!
This is such a funny story. I'm glad you shared with the rest of us.
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