Mom Fail: Teaching About Differences

Here are two pretty hilarious stories that prove that I clearly don't have a handle on how to teach my children about people that are different.

Rewind back to the second week of Celia's school when she was riding the bus in the morning.  The middle school special education bus would pick her up.  She was the last person they picked up before she transferred buses at the middle school.  I gave her no prep about riding the special ed bus and noticed when it picked her up there were two students in wheelchairs and another student that was making lots of noise.   When she got home from her first day riding the bus, I asked her how her day was, how riding the bus was, etc.  She said it was great.  And the she said something like "The first bus was... different."  I responded "The first bus you ride in the morning is called the special education bus and it's for kids that need a little more help.  That's why there's another adult on the bus to help out."  I think I kept going.  After a bit, she looked at me kind of confused and said:  "It was different because it had seat belts."

During the second week of school, Sabrina and Caleb and I walked to the bus stop to meet Celia after school.  It was a nice day, so we took a little walk around the neighborhood.  Half a block ahead of us, I noticed a little person (is that even the right term?) with a beard and wearing a suit.  I had no time to prep my children because by the time I noticed him, he was already within earshot.  I trusted Celia to not say anything embarrassing, but I was super nervous about Sabrina. I tried to keep the conversation going so the girls were talking about other things, but sure enough there was a lull in the conversation just as we were walking right past him.  We got about two feet past him (so he was behind us, but only by about two feet), and Sabrina said: "Well that guy was fat!" This is certainly not what I anticipated her saying, but Tom thinks it's because Sabrina was maybe seeing him in a skewed perspective because she's never seen something like that before, so she maybe thought he was far away and quite fat...?  Anyway, it was both embarrassing and hilarious.  I clearly haven't figured this lesson out.