Corona Virus Quarantine Day #221: Letter Writing Goodness and Car time Convo’s: October 29, 2020:

Today was so good for some many reasons. For one, I decided that having the kids write one letter a day for the next five days would be way better than asking them to sit down and write five in one day. After dinner I told them they needed to write one letter to someone they love, admire or appreciate and tell them why. No one argued, asked questions or complained…they just went to work. It was awesome.

What was more awesome were the letters they wrote. Ellen wrote hers to me, Finley wrote to his Gaga (my mom), Cooper wrote to Finley and Fiona wrote to Mrs. Tripp (no shock here). Fletcher was too busy tonight working on his number puzzle matching the numbers 1-20 so we will have to catch him up later. That was a battle I wasn’t willing to fight, mainly because he was working on his numbers without being asked, so I’ll take the win.

Perhaps the best part of my day was our ride home from school. They must be talking about the election at school because the kids were all asking me who was winning and sharing their hopes for the election. I was also laughing to hear that Gaga has been sharing her political views with the kids because our 5 year old is now a republican and could explain to me why. So that was pretty hilarious.

The greatest and most meaningful conversation was about the civil unrest that is happening in the world. Again, they have to be addressing this at school because some of the things they knew, I know I didn’t tell them. They wanted an explanation as to why the unrest, riots, protests and looting were happening across the nation.

That’s not an easy conversation to tackle in a 20 minute car ride, but hearing their commentary on what we discussed was so profound and so mature it made my history teaching mama heart so happy.

The very best comment was made by Cooper, he said “wait, people still care about the color of someone’s skin? Why? It doesn’t matter at all.”

Yes, Cooper, yes that’s right.

Then Fiona educated us on Rosa Parks and Ellen educated us on Martin Luther King Jr. and Finley asked about a dozen questions.

I seriously thought my head was going to explode with joy because they one, know anything about these people or these issues at the age of 10, 8 and 5 and two, they care.

To raise socially conscious people in today’s climate is critically important in my opinion. I didn’t plan to have such a serious talk with our young kids on the way home…they asked questions that led to this discussion.

I’m grateful. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to sit in a car with our 5 kids and talk to them about life. I know that in a blink of an eye they will be graduating high school and those opportunities will be fewer and farther between. I also want our kids to ask hard and uncomfortable questions, because that is how we truly learn and grow.

That car conversation turned to dinner conversation and most importantly it will hopefully open the door for us to have more conversations like it in the future.

I’m certain I didn’t address the situation perfectly, but I did my best and I admitted to them that I don’t know all the answers and that I can’t explain racism because to me, it doesn’t make sense…it never has.

It seems like to them, it’s also confusing and that makes me so proud.

Martin Luther King said he had a dream that his kids be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.

Cooper’s comment absolutely proves what I have always known, hate is a learned behavior. People aren’t born to feel one way or another about another. They are taught that behavior, and that behavior gross.

So tonight I go to bed with a grateful heart. I’m grateful GOD gave us these 5 kids to raise. They are pretty cool.

#dorseyshenanigans

#celebr8awesome