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My 4-year-old daughter has always been full of energy but since she started Junior Kindergarten a few weeks ago, that energy has become even more intense. And she’s also started shouting out a rather constant stream of gibberish. My husband and I are super annoyed by this — the loudness and the non-stop nature of it. But little did we know it could get worse.
Inbetween the gibberish — the ‘bippity-boppity-boopity-coopity-seppity-zoopity-mippity-mockity-rackety-tackety’ stuff — she has a couple of favorite phrases. One is “YOU! SILLY! GOOSE!” and the other is “Stinky Donkey!”
So yesterday I took the kids to a new playground. It was sort of a toddler playground but there were several older kids there, too. Lots of stylish moms. A nanny or two. Fancy strollers. Super cute kids. Tons of kids. And kids are loud, but there was my daughter. Even louder than they all are.
And she was shouting out “YOU! SILLY! GOOSE!” at her playmates and they were laughing and then she’d go into the gibberish of “stinky-tinky-loo-loo-rah-rah-macky-tacky-shoop-moop-poop!” HA HA HA HA HA! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. Did I mention that my husband and I are unbelievably annoyed with this phase of things?
And then it happened. Her silly goose line became something else. I’m not even going to repeat it but instead of calling someone a silly goose, she called them a silly (insert ethnic slur for Asians). I tried to act cool — obviously she had no idea what she was saying — and subtly looked around to see if any of the other mothers or nannies heard it. No one yelled at me, grabbed their kid and fled or otherwise indicated that they’d heard but maybe they were being polite.
I firmly called her over and told her I didn’t like that word and she shouldn’t use it again. “Okay!” she responded and bounded away for more loud play.
So I think we’re good for now.
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When my nephew was little I had him in the back of my car and he was begging me to stop at a specific playground. The playground next to the ghetto with a swing set with no swings, a loft style giant birdhouse with condoms inside, you know, a really dirty unmaintained playground that has since been completely renovated. To try to dissuade him from that particular park I told him that that playground was “dirty” so we would go the the clean playground by his house. He was only 3 or so at the time so I thought this was a simple enough explanation. Well next time he was driving past that playground with his parents he said ” aunt Becky says that’s where the dirty kids play” and he took dirty kids to mean black kids, in a completely innocent way of thinking they literally needed a bath. Sort of like corrina corrina where she asks the black girl if she tastes like chocolate. I got into a little bit of trouble for that one!
If this had happened in Park Slope, Bklyn, you would’ve been arrested and detained at the Food Co-op for re-education.
xobolaji,
Actually, I totally agree with you that it’s “unnecessarily controversial.” you just have to remember that editors will slap you for writing non-controversial headlines!
xobolaji,
I wouldn’t overthink it. My daughter used a racist word … accidentally.
ok mollie, sorry! [i think the oven-cleaner fumes are getting to my head.] thing is, i do tend to be a bit of an over-thinker. but cool. i hear you. cheers!
i think the title of the piece is unnecessarsily controversial and problematic, however the gist of the story is AWESOME!
and, um, i don’t have the energy to disseminate the politics of the language used here. i just think it’s kind of unfair to suggest that a child is or might be an “accidental racist.” by contrast most regular people never think of being an “intentional racist” so what are we talking about here again?