School is starting. There are a lot of posts, articles and back to school advice flying around the blogosphere right now. I wrote a little snippet myself the other day on not being ready for school just yet.
Then open house for Mita was last Monday. Fifth grade. Same school, same principle, same PE teacher, same art teacher…different classroom teachers. Three different classroom teachers. Three different teachers to say “Hi, I’m Mita’s mom.” Then the double take. Oh. I forgot. We don’t match.
I forget. Mita and Enu can never forget for they are on the other end. They are the ones who stick out in every room they walk into. I did that to them. I knowingly brought them home into a 99.99% white community. I thought love would conquer all, that we would travel for diversity, move eventually to a more diverse community. We could do all of those things and love like no other, but we will never match and they will always get the double take.
How do they handle it? Like kids do. A smirk to me or a covert rolling of the eyes, sometimes a glare (to me, not the teacher). We talk about it. They shrug it off, I know it still bothers them.
The double take is a reflex, it will always happen. If you find yourself doing the double take with a multi-racial family, it’s okay. Just don’t stare and ask if they have any real children! Please and thank you!
