Families have changed so much from when I was a kid. When I went to school, almost all of my friends were in traditional families; mom, dad, kids. I think I had one friend whose mom was divorced and still single, and she never dated. Parents having boyfriends or girlfriends just didn't happen. There were no step siblings or half siblings. It just wasn't a part of my world at that age. But now the traditional families are very few and rare. I often get into conversations with kids that start our with me asking, "So how is so and so related to you?" The kids have no problem telling me how "we have the same mom but different dads," or "my mom and his dad are boyfriend and girlfriend," or "my dad used to date his mom's sister." Trust me it gets very complicated. I've also had a couple of families that literally just switched partners.
Well, during book fair I had a new volunteer who I was talking to and she mentioned one of my other students who was also her grandson. I didn't realize she was related to this other child, so I asked, innocently enough, "How are you C's grandma?" Now what I expected to hear was "Well, his dad is my son." Really that's all I needed to hear. Instead, I got this.....
"Well my son and his mother were very young and started to experiment sexually in their relationship"
I thought it would end there. Actually I wish it had, but no she kept going on....
"And K (Mom) didn't think she could get pregnant, but she did, and that's how C is my grandson"
Thanks so much for that lesson on the birds and the bees. I'll never ask again!
No comments:
Post a Comment