the funeral home visit... ahem, I mean nursing home

Connor recently informed me that his class would be taking a field trip to the funeral home. Really? Okay, that's weird. Turns out he actually paid a visit to a local nursing home in celebration of Child Abuse Awareness Week. Well, shortly after the trip, I discovered that while visiting and making crafty pinwheels with the senior adults, the children spotted a lady with no teeth and proceeded to gather around her, inspecting her empty oral cavity.

Anyone who has ever spent a significant amount of time around children knows that they call em like they see em. By nature, children are brutally honest and they aren't born knowing appropriate social interactions. We have to teach them what's appropriate. This is where things get tricky.

Apparently my child (it would be my child) became overly excited by the toothless woman and could not contain himself. He had to spread the news that this lady had no teeth. I cringed as his teacher shared this with me. I mean every mother wants her child to be sweet and respectful of his elders, and she doesn't exactly daydream about the times he'll shout, "Hey look! It's a little mommy, and she has crocs just like me!" or ask the lady in the grocery store what color her skin is. I certainly wasn't waiting for the moment Connor would embarrass his teachers at a nursing home, of all places.

When I confronted Connor about making fun of the toothless lady, he denied that he meant any harm. He said, "Mom, I would never make fun of somebody like that. We were just trying to figure out why she was crying."

This is when my heart broke. He made her cry? Good gracious! What am I going to do?

Then he went on with his explanation of the event: "Hunter said she was crying because she just wanted to go home and be with her family. I said she was crying because she didn't have any teeth left."

I giggled to myself and gave him a big squeeze. How could I be angry with him after that? I'm slowly learning how to facilitate opportunities for Connor to grow intellectually and socially. We won't always be hand-in-hand, so I must prepare him as best as I can. We have definitely used this field trip as a learning experience. I have found myself wondering, though, if a toothless lady at the funeral home would have been any easier to explain.