On Teaching My Child

It is my job as my son’s first teacher to teach him right and wrong, left from right, up from down, backwards from forwards, and of course, his numbers and ABC’s.  What I WILL NOT be teaching him?  That being gay is wrong.  That any certain race is better than any other.  That it is okay to hate people.  (Except for bad drivers; it is completely okay to hate them.)

What brought this up, you ask?  Maybe you didn’t ask, but I will still answer for you.  A recent conversation with my Q-bear.  He will be turning three in the beginning of July, so he has a tender mind still – easily influenced and soaking up all I can teach him like a sponge.  The conversation started off quite unrelated to the topic at hand, actually.

Q:  Mommy!  Look at the red boat!

Me:  Yeees.  I see the red boat.

Q:  Mommy!  You see the red boat?  Yeah!  Mommy!  Look at the yellow car!

Me:  Woooow!  Look at the yellow car!

Q:  What color is this car, Mommy?

Me:  Blue.  That’s a cool car!

Q:  Yeah!  What color is Q, Mommy?

Me: [Thinking, this is an excellent learning opportunity, let’s see where this goes.]  I don’t know; what color are you?

Q:  I yellow.

Me:  What color is Mommy?

Q:  Yoooou purple.

Me:  Wow!  What color is Daddy?

Q:  Daddy iiiiiis BLACK!

Me:  Coool!  What color is Grandma and Grandpa and Cameron[ his uncle]?

Q:  Grandma is red.  Grandpa is brown.  Cameron is green.

See?  Kids do not care what COLOR people are.  Not really.  Skin color is not a concept that my son is even aware of.  Children only learn what WE teach them.  They are born without opinions.  Without knowing stereotypes or even how to say the word itself.  Without hatred.  (And they certainly do not know swear words, yet.)  WE teach them these things, as parents, as family, as a society.  They see it, they hear it often enough and it becomes knowledge for them.  They are so young, of course, that they take it as fact what they are taught.  Now, I am not trying to stand up on my soapbox here, but COME ON.  No one learns to hate large of groups of select people all on their own.  It is my goal to keep my child’s mind open, let him form his own opinions, and hopefully make choices that are morally sound.

I suppose that I have my own viewpoint on morally sound which may oppose others’ viewpoints but let me sum it up for you:  It is just fine to be homosexual – it is none of anyone else’s business anyways;  it is just fine to have interracial relationships –  it is none of anyone else’s business anyways;  it is just fine to be hesitant about religion – you will choose your own path and I will accept what you choose;  It is just fine to question others’ opinions, but don’t force your opinion on them – no one likes that.  It’s just annoying;  and ultimately – just be who you are and I will always love you no matter what.  That is what I plan on teaching my child.

On Being a Stud Muffin-ess

A few days ago, one of my fellow Facebookers had something quite wonderful to say about her life.

What an amazing moment that must have been!

I am not sure what it is – maybe life IS going exactly the way I want it to go.  Maybe since I have become more self-accepting, I am simply more able to handle the things life throws at me.  Maybe life has decided to stop throwing things at me because of my newly discovered amahzing batting skills.   It doesn’t really matter why; I am loving life these days.  [I am really sorry if anyone is getting sick of hearing about it, but I can’t really help that I feel AWESOME!]

ALERT!  DON’T WATCH THIS IF SWEARS AND OTHER INAPPROPRIATE SHENANIGANS OFFEND YOU!

Somehow, and this is irrelevant, but somehow, I think Spose is super cute. Ha!

I mean sure, I have those moments when I feel a little down or I freak out over my self-image.  For instance, I got braces right before Christmas, and I was all, “Who’s going to want to go out with me now?”  Then the logical, confident me stepped in, slapped me upside the head, and said, “Really?  WHO CARES!?  You’re gonna look soooo good once they come off, and in the mean time, if some DOUCHE DUDE doesn’t want to go out with you…well then he’s a stupid douche dude!  Now.  Snap out of it!”  And that moment of self-doubt was gone, just like that.  Because my braces will be coming off in roughly two year’s time, but whatever guy doesn’t want to date me will always be an idiot who missed on awesome.

Not that I would EVER date someone who looks like this, anyway. Seriously.

Or when I wake up in the morning and can’t find an outfit that doesn’t make me feel like a muffin.

There is not a picture for this because the image results on Google for “girl muffin” freaked me out.

I found this:

Stud Muffin!

I subsequently Google-searched female stud muffin and was lead to the the question, “What is the female version of a stud?”  To which there are two answers that I found that I liked: “Studdette” and “Stud Muffin-ess”.

From now on, when I have a “muffin” like morning, I am going to remind myself to be a stud muffin-ess.

Well, I suppose that would make me a cupcake!

 I lost my train of thought long ago.  I apologize.  Point is: I feel really good about myself and my life, and I am enjoying that feeling!  Enjoy and embrace what you have, too!