I used to teach a little boy from a same sex family his mum was a lesbian his dad had access too but from what I can remember the mum and dad were in a relationship when he was conceived, it was in 1989 so I don't remember much about the circumstances he would be about 24/5 now. I do remember him sharing things at circle time about the mum and girlfriend eg. "****pinched my mums bum in bed this morning" none of the other children blinked an eye children are just so accepting of whatever is presented to them take fairy stories for instance- they take all of them at face value and cartoons like Tom and Jerry when one gets squashed and bounces back into their former shape in no time.
I was working in a private school in South Manchester at the time - its closed down now and most of this group of children had been together since the age of 2 and were now between 5 & 7 and out of the blue one morning at arrival time one of the little girls looked at a little black boy (- a real darling) as he arrived and then addressed the mother also black - whole family black Jamacians and said why is E*****'s face that colour? As the Mum and I were in conversation we tried to let it pass but she was like a dog with a bone and wouldn't let it drop until she got a reason and I just said that when we are in the sun a long time some peoples skin goes brown and referred to mine as I'd been to Florida and said that the longer we spend in the sun the browner it gets and if we are born and live in some very hot countries our skin can be very brown and that E******'s grand parents were born in a hot country and so all their children and grand children were brown but a little bit lighter than them because they now lived in England. The Mother was really upset at the time and left in tears because she didn't understand the innocence of the childs question - she wasn't being racest she had just noticed something she hadn't noticed before about this boy. Its ironic that it was that particular child who noticed as her mother was half the age of her father and she was no spring chicken so whenever the dad came to pick the little one up some child was bound to say "A**** your Grandad is here" and she would just look them in the eye and say he's my daddy and was never upset by what they said. None of the other children were being nasty but were just saying things as they saw them and none of us staff ever corrected them or made an issue of it and they just accepted it. Just like the boy whose mums girlfriend pinched his mums bum in bed that morning. I don't think things should be hidden from children but there is no need to make an issue of differences in any way we just need to take it all at face value and be open to accept people for who they are and I'd only draw attention to things if they do and be as open as possible if they ask questions.
Bookmarks