This will be a long story so stick with me you have to know the background to completely understand the ending. When I was 5 my brother was born, we were in Florida staying with my grandparents. When my mom went to the hospital a nice neighbor of theirs who I knew well named Millie was assigned to take care of me. She was great fun I still remember, we played garage sale with all the hospital toiletries. When my mom came back she asked what we did and at the end of the sentence explaining the game I said, "....with that fat lady over there." loud enough for her to hear (of course) and my mom was very embarrassed. Millie piped up with, don't worry about it.
So now to the present situation at hand. Yesterday a very large man who Greyson didn't know was at our house quoting something and taking to David. Greyson asked, "why is that man so fat?" in front of the guy and everyone in the yard. Dad handled it about as well as my mom did back in the day and told him that was not nice to say and that you don't use that word and apologized to the man.
I still need to talk to him about it --I wasn't within ear shot of it and only heard about it later. I've been thinking about it since and kids say what they hear if he didn't hear 'fat' he would never say it. Neither of us describe people as fat so I don't think he heard us say it. But then I thought of one of my favorite childhood books, specifically one of the books I had when I was a kid which my parents sent to me for Greyson-- "Harry by the Sea". This book actually describes a lady on the beach as fat and worse I've been reading it to him without changing it at all. Hmmmm, I see the problem. Parents, it's not just important to read to your kids it's also important to carefully select the books you read.
So I know my parents are laughing at the situation but I am telling them THEY started this with that awful book!!! I might burn it tonight to put an end to the vicious cycle. :)
~Greyson's Mom
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