MLK Day 2011

Happy MLK Day 2011!

Last year I shared my MLK wish for my children, and these sentiments still ring true.

A year later, Mom-E and I have been struck by the ever-increasing complexity of the questions from our children, particularly Big Brother. These days we're trading in "Why are you going to work?" for questions such as, "Does God have a wife?"

Of course, this is the natural progression of "growing up." And while this is to be expected, it's filled with a mix of excitement about thier development, and realization that some of the innocence of childhood is (very gradually) being shed.

Big Brother's kindergarten class had obviously been talking about the MLK holiday last week. At dinner, there was a question about "Why boys used to not be able to play with boys with a different skin color?"

And so we tried to answer him in an age-appropriate fashion. This did include some honest comments about how people used to do really mean (read: horrible, atrocious) things to people who "played" with people of a different skin color.

We've always taught the boys that the most important thing about a person is their character (again, defined age appropriately), not the color of their skin. And this is something that Mom-E and I live by example, so it's eaiser for the boys to understand the concept.

Big Brother was satisfied with our answer, and his questions shifted to another topic.

Little Brother, however, has more trouble distinguishing past from present, and became very concerned that someone was going to "come throw rocks at our house?"

Like I said, the questions aren't getting any easier (and nor will they ever)

Have a good week,
Busy-Dad-E