Beth E. (NJ)
<font color=red>Disney obsessed<br><font color=blu
- Joined
- Sep 27, 1999
- Messages
- 8,219
Hi all! Beth E. (NJ) here.
I just wanted to kvell about my kids for a minute.
DH and I sent both our kids to the local Jewish Community Center preschool. We picked it because it was close to our home, it had the schedule we liked and it stressed things like friendship, playing nicely and sharing rather than learning, learning, learning (although the learning was snuck in.) My only complaint was that it was so homogenized. 95 percent of the kids were white and Jewish -- which is what we are but it is not a good sample of what the world -- or even my town is.
So anyway the girls get older (they are 8 1/2 and 12 now) and go to public school. The school is very diverse and I love that about it.
What I've come to realize about my kids it that they don't really see the color of someones skin or the sexual orientation of their parents.
Their friends are their friends and that's it. At the beginning of the school year when I am talking to my younger one and she is talking about her friends I'm sometimes trying to figure out who is who -- if they are kids I'm not familiar with. But if I ask her to describe them she never mentions skin color -- it's always height or hair length.
As for my older one -- we had the strangest conversation one day. They had been talking about something at school and sexual orientation came up. My daughter said to me "we don't know anyone who's gay." And I looked at her like she was crazy. I said, "We don't?" and she couldn't think of anyone. I had to remind her that a couple who are our closest friends and neighbors are two women who have a son starting high school next year. We hang out with them all the time -- we have porch parties, seasonal parties (okay -- any excuse for a party works for us.) To my daughter it wasn't even a blip on her radar -- they were just another family that she loves.
I'm glad I'm bringing up children who see people for what really matters --what's inside of them.
And we even liberalized my (brought up by a very Conservative almost Orthodox Jewish dad) mother along the way. Took care of two generations in one.
I just wanted to kvell about my kids for a minute.
DH and I sent both our kids to the local Jewish Community Center preschool. We picked it because it was close to our home, it had the schedule we liked and it stressed things like friendship, playing nicely and sharing rather than learning, learning, learning (although the learning was snuck in.) My only complaint was that it was so homogenized. 95 percent of the kids were white and Jewish -- which is what we are but it is not a good sample of what the world -- or even my town is.
So anyway the girls get older (they are 8 1/2 and 12 now) and go to public school. The school is very diverse and I love that about it.
What I've come to realize about my kids it that they don't really see the color of someones skin or the sexual orientation of their parents.
Their friends are their friends and that's it. At the beginning of the school year when I am talking to my younger one and she is talking about her friends I'm sometimes trying to figure out who is who -- if they are kids I'm not familiar with. But if I ask her to describe them she never mentions skin color -- it's always height or hair length. As for my older one -- we had the strangest conversation one day. They had been talking about something at school and sexual orientation came up. My daughter said to me "we don't know anyone who's gay." And I looked at her like she was crazy. I said, "We don't?" and she couldn't think of anyone. I had to remind her that a couple who are our closest friends and neighbors are two women who have a son starting high school next year. We hang out with them all the time -- we have porch parties, seasonal parties (okay -- any excuse for a party works for us.) To my daughter it wasn't even a blip on her radar -- they were just another family that she loves.
I'm glad I'm bringing up children who see people for what really matters --what's inside of them.
And we even liberalized my (brought up by a very Conservative almost Orthodox Jewish dad) mother along the way. Took care of two generations in one.
