Q is in that horrible phase where he just blurts out whatever he observes. I believe this phase shows up around the age of four and then again around the age of 75.
A few days ago we were walking in a parking garage when a tall couple approached. "Dad, look how TALL they are. Look! They're so tall!"
The people were about ten feet from us, so they just smiled in an embarrassed way and shuffled on.
He did it again this past week at the airport, exclaiming loudly about how tall a guy right next to us was. The tall person in question just ignored Q and acted like he didn't hear him, but a kid behind Mr. Tall thought the whole scene was hilarious.
I dodged a bullet when we were checking in at the airport. I noticed the woman taking the checked luggage appeared to have gigantism (like Andre the Giant).
"You better drop off the bag alone," I whispered to T.
But you can't dodge every awkward moment. We were in Boston this past weekend for Lena's christening. We stopped by to visit an old man who knew T when he was little. The man had trouble getting around, and as could be expected, his chair was shabby and their were stacks of magazines and other things.
"He lives in a dumpster!" Q declared.
Time to go!
I was filling the kids' nanny in on all this awkwardness, and she told me that Q had asked a chubby friend of her teenage daughter, "Why are you so fat?" I'm sure that's just what that poor girl needs at this stage of her life.
So now we are trying to inform him that you can't say everything that comes to mind, and some things are just not nice to say because they hurt other peoples' feelings.
How have you handled this pre-school awkwardness? Besides pretending the child belongs to someone else (though I have tried this).
--MM
Oh my! My baby brother once said to my father (in the check out line at the grocery store)
ReplyDelete"Don't look now dad theres a very big black guy right behind you!" My dad said - "Huh! I'll bet he's a nice guy!" (without even turning around!) lol
Oh the age where their "mouth filter" is still forming :)
Brodie and Dillon will say things like that as well...
ReplyDeleteAs in Brodie 4 will assume that a person he saw who was wearing womens clothes and ask Loudly "why that man looks so weird and is wearing those clothes" When in fact it was a women. .. I quietly move on and tell him that when you look at people its polite not to stare or make loud comments and to ask questions a little quieter next time. They also get confused when a women dresses like a man but is a girl and looks like a boy. I have to just say "stop staring" or "thats what they choose to wear".
I'm sure with 3 kids its hard to look around and avoid difficult awkward situations :)
Yeah, kids do that--it's great!
ReplyDeleteThere's no need to say anything to them about it though. They phase out of that stage all by themselves. They'll become just as mute as the rest of us soon enough.
As for the tall people, fat people, androgynous people, etc.--they can handle it. They're adults. It isn't rude coming from a child, it's simply childish.