Sunday, February 3, 2013

Color....Through the Eyes of a Child


I recently was thinking about what a lady had said to my sister-in-law in Target, I believe it was, along with  my sweet niece Grace. (see their beautiful family below. Oh, and that's my handsome nephew, Patrick.) A lady asked Callie, "Where is she from?" My sister-in-law was caught off guard so she responded...my belly. I thought that was a great answer. Probably because I would have responded with a smartelic answer and my words would not have been very kind. But it got me to thinking.                                      
Have you ever wondered why your child, my 4 year old, color their dog purple or their cat green? I mean, you know they've never seen one walking around. Or why do they color mommy red and daddy pink? Why? Because kids don't see color or at least it doesn't matter to them. They don't care that their dog is purple. They just care that mommy and daddy or their teacher think that they did a good job. So, as they get older, we teach them that they can't color the dog purple or the cat green. Those colors are not "real" colors of those animals. We teach them the way we want to see their work, their coloring's  their drawings. We teach them by seeing color. 

And sadly enough, as they get older, we teach them to see people as color. I'm white (clearly) and my husband is black. (clearly) :) Never once has my 4 year old questioned why his mommy is one color and his daddy is another color. Why? Because he doesn't care. He sees us as his mommy and daddy. Until someone makes it a "big" deal, he more than likely will never question it. We don't run our household by color, but with God and love for each other. If you want to teach your child about color, then teach them it doesn't matter. Teach them that everyone is created equal. See color through their eyes. 

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