Rainbow Blight

I was having a gender role discussion with Mike tonight (you should always brace yourself if I invite you to one of those), and I started to tell him about my plans for my children, to ensure that they become loving, pro equal-rights, non-violent people.

Yeah, that's right, I've got this.

My first plan, to create pro-pacifism, is to never give my sons any sort of weapon toys. Absolutely no guns*, but also no swords, knives, etc. I was driving down the street today and saw a little boy who was probably three with a pair of nunchucks.

What kid needs nunchucks???????

I also told Mike about the children's book I have called "Cornrows," about hair that is obviously not European. I plan to read it to my kids (note: who I am not necessarily assuming will be white; point being, I will read it to my kids whether they look like Mommy or are biracial. But I digress*) and I have permission from my brother Patrick to read it to his (white) kids.

I then told Mike that because I assume I won't have money to travel the world, I will teach my kids about it, forcing them to eat Indian food, read books about Africa, go to Middle Eastern film festivals, etc.

But I also explained to Mike about the gender neutral toys I plan to get for my kids, and his response caught me so off guard that he had me cracking up. I told him that my children will play with gray toys; no pink, no blue. To which he responded,

"You're like, taking away color from them."

*Sorry, Dee. I thought of you as soon as I typed that. Growing up on a pig farm in Iowa where wild birds fly around and your family uses actual guns to kill them is completely different. (But for the record, my children won't have actual guns either, and I don't support guns as a whole. Dee is probably not enjoying me right now. But I think she still loves me.)

**Okay, I realized as I typed that parenthetical that the entire sentence was getting more awkward as I went forward with it. I was not implying with my note about my hypothetical biracial children that there is no chance I will marry a white man and have children who are not biracial with him.

And! I was not trying to imply that my children will definitely not be white, which would perhaps imply to curious readers that I would never consider marrying/having children with Mike (who is white). I thought about putting all of this info (and more) into that set of parentheses, but look at how long this footnote has become (and there's more).

Also, I would have to add that I am also not saying that I will for sure have children with Mike, because we have been dating less than two months, and that is a little awkward to be discussing just yet, don't you think? Except not, apparently, too awkward for me to discuss it here publicly on my blog.

So you see how the more politically correct I tried to be the worse I got? And the more I tried to flatter, not reject, my boyfriend, the worse I got? I'm gonna go nibble on my toes now. Smooches, Mikey! I miss you a ton!