Tonight, while T was outside cooking dinner, Kt asked him something, he replied and she said, "What? You think I'm a lesbian?" I cannot even tell you what prompted her question except that it had nothing to do with being a lesbian! I looked up from the cooktop and asked her to repeat herself while T jumped back up to the sliding door to see my reaction. I wisely deferred the question back to him!!
We quickly determined that Kt has an extremely vague idea of what a lesbian is, and I'm not certain that I want to delve into all the intricacies of the idea with a nine year old just yet. What is entirely disturbing to me, however, is how she came to hear this word. Apparently, this word was used on her playground after a boy kicked a ball into another girl's face and Kt's best friend went to this girl's aid. The boy then asked Kt's friend if she was a lesbian because she was helping her friend. And the boy? He's the one that moved into her best friend's house, his dad is a pastor and that's all I'll say.
This boy, according to Katie, got in A LOT of trouble for using this word in such a way. Clearly Kt was not worried that the same would happen at home! That child has a mind like a sponge and today was a great reminder to me that our children are growing up, and they are going to hear and be exposed to many things we might not be ready to discuss but will be wise to. With events such as the shooting at Virginia Tech, the war in Iraq/Afghanistan and Christian friends who throw words even they don't understand around at school we just cannot ignore these issues with our children. I might have sat back and thought about how evil school is until I realize she might just hear all these same things in church on Sunday! She's just growing up. And there's nothing I can do about that!
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