Story time
Posted by lynnontop on August 30, 2011
We went for our regular drive to visit my mother on Sunday. She lives almost 2 hours away – it makes for a long day: 2 hours there, lunch and playtime for D, 2 hours back (or longer if we’re running errands). In the back seat we keep a couple of books and small toys, to keep the boy entertained (he finds the iPhone more entertaining, though). He wanted me to hand him the tiny version of Angela’s Airplane we have back ther. He normally isn’t that interested in the book, other than to hold it. Too few pictures, too many words. But this time, he let me read the whole thing to him. It was great! Maybe now we can move to a more focussed storytime.
On the back of the little book were headshots of the author and the illustrator. To my surprise he said “Mine daddy” (he talks like a little German boy lately). I explained that, no, these were pictures of the guy who wrote the words and the guy who drew the pictures. He replied with “no, this mine daddy”. I’m not sure if it was the young bearded Munsch or the clean shaven Martchenko that was the “daddy”, but it wasn’t me.
Every time I watch tv shows or see books that talk about Mommy and Daddy, I get irritated. Why can’t we just call them “Parents”? How about “Johnnie went to the park with his parents”. ( It goes hand in hand with my peeve related to people who say stuff like “the brave men and women who serve in our armed forces”. Why not brave people or brave soldiers? Why do we have to talk about their perceived gender?). Why can’t daycares and schools drop the mommy and daddy talk and refer to parents as “parents”. And as disappointing as it is for me to hear D pointing out pictures of his “daddy”, I can’t imagine how shitty it must be for single parents to hear the same type of thing.
