Kevin's Watch

Excellent!

So, my son is in Kindergarten, and wants to go to school as a pink Crayon for Halloween. Now, I don't honestly care, other than the lack of creativity of going as a Crayon, what he goes as. However, since he is at a K-6 school, I suspect he may get made fun of. Thankfully he doesn't want to dress as My Little Pony, which is his latest viewing obsession. If he eventually turns out to be gay, I have no problem with this, especially since many of our family friends are gay men. However, I would like to send him to school without an obvious target on his back. If it was just a school for Kindergarten, I wouldn't worry about it. But I could see older kids picking on him. Should I just not worry about it, or should I have a talk about why he may be picked on and discuss gay and straight, or should I just name him Sue and let the chips lie where they might?

Personally, I'd flat-out lie and say I couldn't find any Pink material/costumes, but hey here's this light red one! It's almost pink!

Besides, if you name him Sue, you'll have to walk out on him and not see him again until you guys end up in the inevitable bar brawl.

Cagliostro wrote:So, my son is in Kindergarten, and wants to go to school as a pink Crayon for Halloween. Now, I don't honestly care, other than the lack of creativity of going as a Crayon, what he goes as. However, since he is at a K-6 school, I suspect he may get made fun of. Thankfully he doesn't want to dress as My Little Pony, which is his latest viewing obsession. If he eventually turns out to be gay, I have no problem with this, especially since many of our family friends are gay men. However, I would like to send him to school without an obvious target on his back. If it was just a school for Kindergarten, I wouldn't worry about it. But I could see older kids picking on him. Should I just not worry about it, or should I have a talk about why he may be picked on and discuss gay and straight, or should I just name him Sue and let the chips lie where they might?

Tough call but I think I would have a talk with him about how to handle being made fun of. Not sure you should talk about gay/straight in terms of pink and My Little Pony as I think that reinforces stereotypes.

Agree with Lorin. Let him go as he wants, and teach him to punch anybody who makes fun of him.

(That's mostly a joke. )

--A

Don't know how old your son is, 3-4? What is K-6, children up to six years old? From my experience older children don't take the slightest notice of what the little ones wear. However, what does a pink crayon have to do with Halloween? It may be the choice of pink CRAYON that others will notice. Better perhaps to explain to him what Halloween is all about and ask him to choose something more appropriate? Or does any kind of dressing up do for Halloween?

Girls like to play with cars, why shouldn't boys wear pink?

Iolanthe, I think K-6 would be Kindergarten up to grade 6, which is probably the same as a full primary school here. So, say, 5-11 year olds?

Murrin has it right, Io.

Ah, right, thanks. I've never got to grips with "year 6" or whatever, all different to when I and my own children were at school.

I think I'm going potty! Got to the Archives this morning and discovered I hadn't brought any work with me! One of my checking ladies was rather annoyed too as she didn't have too much else to do. So I took 100 photos from the first Lincoln City Apprentices book (part of tomorrow's work) so I can work on them at home. Pleased to see that the Latin entries finish on page 248, and as a bonus the writing gets much easier.

Iolanthe wrote: I think I'm going potty!

I'm assuming that is a British expression. In the states going potty means going to the bathroom.

Really? A Potty is a small receptacle for training toddlers to use a toilet, but "going potty" means going daft. What people now call a "senior moment"?

lorin wrote:

Iolanthe wrote: I think I'm going potty!

I'm assuming that is a British expression. In the states going potty means going to the bathroom.

Yes, there are lots of things that I don't say now because the British expression means something totally different in the US.

There are a couple come to mind that others have said.

Some years back when I traveled to the US on business with another guy from the company, I had already been here quite a bit, but for him it was something like the second time. We went out drinking and after a few, he ran out of cigarettes, and did the unthinkable - he said to the girl behind the bar "Do you have a fag machine in here?". I jumped in quickly and explained that he meant a cigarette vending machine...

The other one was a friend's father traveling to the US on business back in the 60s. It was when hotels gave you a registration card and a pencil at the check in desk. He made an error and there was no eraser on the end of the pencil, so he said "Excuse me, do you have a rubber?"

Oops!

Something for the weekend sir?

U. had one....."having a bit of crack (fun)"..........

I understand our term "fanny pack" makes people laugh with embarrassment in England.

And I remember my time in grade school, and it was pretty much about cutting down anybody to make yourself look bigger. Then again, maybe I was a school bully (although I certainly didn't look the part).

And Lorin - that's a good idea. But I do feel the need to inform him of the stereotypes so that he can avoid certain pitfalls. Ultimately, I don't care what he wears as long as it makes him happy, but if he went as the girliest girl thing imaginable, I expect it will only make him happy until he starts getting teased.

Cag, could you put a macho name down the side of the crayon?

I dunno. I've got girls, so pink was never an issue. (When Batty was in kindergarten, she wanted to be a volcano for Halloween. *That* was an entertaining costume to make, let me tell you. )

Iolanthe wrote:Something for the weekend sir?

I remember our dad used to take me and my brother to the same barber that he used, and he would get asked that question. He always evaded answering it when I asked what the barber meant...

A spanish-speaking person tweeted my blog post about Ancillary Sword, then he and someone else started having a conversation, in Spanish, in the replies. The conversation had nothing at all to do with me or my post, but they keep including my twitter handle in it anyway, so I can't do anything to stop getting notifications every time one of them responds to the other...

Cag, dunno if this may help should he be teased, but pink is the color for Breast Cancer Awareness, which October happens to be the month it is promoted. Could he be coached to respond that he is proud to wear pink in support/memory of someone who is/was fighting that demon?

The whole 'pink is for girls' thing is really fairly recent. (And more of a marketing scheme than instinctive preference.) Not that being a history nerd is likely to impress bullies. I can't offer any parenting advice, but it sounds like you're doing a good job. I hope he has a great Halloween, whatever he decides to be.