Thank you for this post. I have had similar discussions with my children who are biracial. I too believe this is a topic we should not be afraid to discuss with our children.
This is a very good post. I'm glad you were able to be neutral with your daughter when discussing her feelings about skin colour. I think you spoke so well with her.
I like the way you talk with your children about our skin colours, and this book sounds great, and your art activity is wonderful. I like supplying all the colours for skin when offering paint and crayons as well. Well done, Tom!! Brenda
I am clueless how to even approach race differences with my children. They are biracial, Native and Caucasian, but all look very different from each other: from blond hair blue eyed to dark hair and brown eyes. Genes are funny that way. I have this hope in me that it will just lead them to thinking everyone is just supposed to look different and it has very little to do with who they are as a person.
Thank you for this post. You have a beautiful way of writing about your insights and this blog has challenged me to think about my interactions with my own children in new ways .
This really hits close from home, as I do have a son who is biracial, with my ex... We moved to a city where vast majority of residents were "white". He was the only one non-white in his class, one of the few in entire elementary school. One day, he came home and told me that he wanted to be white with yellow hair like everyone else, that he hated to be brown... it broke my heart.
I'm not going to get into about my ex, but I'll just say he was away from home a lot because of his job, and wasn't very involved with our children when he was home. Everything fun we did/my son did was with me or our neighbors who happened to be white also.
Anyways... I was preschool teacher then too, so I knew where to purchase the "multi-cultural crayons". We did what you did in this post... we compared each other's skin color with the crayon, found out that he wasn't brown, he was tan, just like me. He still said "I wish I was white." I replied "I wish I was green." He smiled and said "I wish I was purple." I said "I wish I was blue." we went back and forth with different colors. Then I said "I wish I was all these colors, but I think I love how I am the best. And I love how you are the best." My son replied "Me, too. I love us just the way we are the bestest."
Talking about racial issues are so much complicated... in and out of the particular race, because it's all connected - it's not just a issue of outside of the race, or vise vasa. It's so difficult, sometimes, to be objectively discuss about the issues because it's all connected to our emotions. But we can't avoid the conversations on this topic with our children, no matter how hard, because it is connected to them, too.
Thank you for this post. I have had similar discussions with my children who are biracial. I too believe this is a topic we should not be afraid to discuss with our children.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this beautiful post!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good post. I'm glad you were able to be neutral with your daughter when discussing her feelings about skin colour. I think you spoke so well with her.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you talk with your children about our skin colours, and this book sounds great, and your art activity is wonderful.
I like supplying all the colours for skin when offering paint and crayons as well.
Well done, Tom!!
Brenda
I am clueless how to even approach race differences with my children. They are biracial, Native and Caucasian, but all look very different from each other: from blond hair blue eyed to dark hair and brown eyes. Genes are funny that way. I have this hope in me that it will just lead them to thinking everyone is just supposed to look different and it has very little to do with who they are as a person.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post. You have a beautiful way of writing about your insights and this blog has challenged me to think about my interactions with my own children in new ways .
ReplyDeleteThis really hits close from home, as I do have a son who is biracial, with my ex... We moved to a city where vast majority of residents were "white". He was the only one non-white in his class, one of the few in entire elementary school. One day, he came home and told me that he wanted to be white with yellow hair like everyone else, that he hated to be brown... it broke my heart.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to get into about my ex, but I'll just say he was away from home a lot because of his job, and wasn't very involved with our children when he was home. Everything fun we did/my son did was with me or our neighbors who happened to be white also.
Anyways... I was preschool teacher then too, so I knew where to purchase the "multi-cultural crayons". We did what you did in this post... we compared each other's skin color with the crayon, found out that he wasn't brown, he was tan, just like me.
He still said "I wish I was white." I replied "I wish I was green." He smiled and said "I wish I was purple." I said "I wish I was blue." we went back and forth with different colors. Then I said "I wish I was all these colors, but I think I love how I am the best. And I love how you are the best."
My son replied "Me, too. I love us just the way we are the bestest."
Talking about racial issues are so much complicated... in and out of the particular race, because it's all connected - it's not just a issue of outside of the race, or vise vasa. It's so difficult, sometimes, to be objectively discuss about the issues because it's all connected to our emotions. But we can't avoid the conversations on this topic with our children, no matter how hard, because it is connected to them, too.
Sorry about the rumble, I'm gonna stop now :)
I'll be brief. I love this post!
ReplyDelete