Wednesday is K Day

Wednesday is K day, each week I pick him up because his Mother has no coverage for him on that day. This happens to be my favorite day of the week, I am off from work, all my friends know this day is special and we have a ritual. We run errands on the way from his town to mine, sometimes we stop at the feed store, he is very welcome there! There are horse shoes, baby chickens and a host of other things that a 4 year old finds fascinating. We also go to the 99 cent store, now anyone who teaches Sunday school or works in a day care or especially a grandparent knows the value of a dollar store.

K knows the value of money, so every time as he selects his gift from Grandma there he asks, between his 2 or 3 choices "how much is this one"? A dollar K, and week after week it goes. This past Wednesday I let him go to the cashier ahead of me proudly holding his own money(along with the dime for tax. Tax is a perplexing issue for a 4 year old, but with only the wisdom of a 4 year old will you accept that Grandma says this is the law( you know like child seats..etc)

Ahead of us was an elderly gentlemen..he greeted us with "what is a white woman doing in the store with a white child?" I know I said this blog was not about social issues etc. but K's reaction to this is the reason I am sharing this with you. He could tell from the tone of this man that his Grandma was not being greeted in the manner he was accustomed too. His reply as I stood in confusion was "Hey Guy!!!" This is weather either I blew it, or since we are working on manners I told this little boy who wanted to defend his Grandmother that the gentlemen was mature and there for we should address him as sir. With that he paid for his purchase and left.

When I approached the cashier she said, "I am so sorry about that". I shared that it is not our problem but his. At the end of the day when I shared this with Grandpa, he asked me the nationality or ethnicity of this gentlemen, I do not know! I stopped seeing people in any other light then how they behaved years ago. so I have decided that I would be useless in any description to a law enforcement artist...

When we got home K played happily with his new purchase and we worked on our camping trailer( I highly suggest this is not a project to attempt with any pre-schooler). Suddenly he was gone! I was on the hunt only to have him show up with his store play money, saying we would need money to camp and wanted to hide it in the trailer..which he did.

As I said in my introduction, Grandpa and I are confused with some of the things we see. Should we be so concerned with with color or money? The point of this "camping" was to learn to rely on ourselves and not let the social issues of the day or money inter fear with this! Or is this just a sign of the times that even pre-schoolers need to learn to deal with?