You know my children are half-Asian, right? The Husband is a blond, blue-eyed, white-bread Midwesterner. If you know anything about genetics, well, you wouldn’t be surprised that my kids kinda look Asian. Still, I have gotten somewhat used to being asked about my kids’ racial mix.
However, I did not expect this to happen today. I am watching a friend’s two year old son today. Let’s call him Little Bobby. Little Bobby is a good looking kid–think of Macauley Culkin when he was younger and in the Home Alone movies. While Bito and Cupcake were at school and preschool, BabyMuffin, Little Bobby and I ran a few errands.
At the grocery store, BabyMuffin and Little Bobby were side-by-side in one of the shopping carts that had two places up top for kids to sit. I could feel a patron staring at us as we browsed the produce. I ignored him as I contemplated nectarines, peaches, broccoli and green beans.
The same guy was in the canned goods aisle when I turned the cart into it. Abruptly he blurted out, “They both yours?” The bluntness of the question startled me a bit, but I remained composed. I managed to look him straight in the eye and respond with a straight face, “Yes, yes they are.” He looked a bit skeptical and I wondered why he was asking…and then he fired another unexpected question my way, “Same father?”
Now I was just irritated. Who asks these kinds of questions?! I decided to keep on pulling his leg. I smiled sweetly and said, “My husband and I have been married almost nine years.” (This is not a lie. We’ll celebrate our ninth anniversary this June.)
He harrumphed and seemed to ponder this. I thought for sure he was going to call me out on my lie. Instead, he simply said, “It’s nice that you have one that favors you and the other that favors your husband. Cute boys.”
And then he turned and walked away.
Like I said: If this hadn’t actually happened to me, I might not believe it.
***Neither of the two images in this post are the boys I was actually with today, but they do resemble Little Bobby and BabyMuffin (kinda). I got those images from Wikimedia Commons to give you an idea of how different the boys look!
That is AWESOME!!! I love it!
LOL! It’s just crazy that he’d ask that, but his ultimate response was nice enough!
Good gracious. Is there NO limit to what people will say?! What if they were both yours and one or the other were adopted?!
.-= Kelly M´s last blog ..A Praise Report =-.
Wow! Please tell me that guy was grandpa old…
We have friends with two blonder than blond half-Swedish boys…and a baby girl they adopted from Rwanda. I worry about what people will say to them.
But I am curious: why did you lie about both boys being yours?
.-= Emily´s last blog ..Got Matzo Balls? =-.
I totally loved how you dealt with him! Kudos to you.
Stuff like that happens to me all the time! Maybe less so now that I have 2 kids.
The question I hate the most is, “What’s your nationality?” and people are confused/upset when I say “American.”
.-= Thien-Kim´s last blog ..Hammer Some Nails with Your Kid =-.
People blow me away. Who feels that it’s okay to ask if your kids (or not your kids
) have the same father. You should have told him that you’re not sure because you sleep around a lot.
At least he had nice words to say at the end. I guess.
.-= Stimey´s last blog ..I Dare You to Not Be Overwhelmed by the Cute =-.
What a strange encounter. He closed it out nice, but I really expected it to go in a much worse direction. I think some people just don’t have much of a filter.
.-= Carabee´s last blog ..Buddy, Your Days Are Numbered =-.
That’s pretty funny, and a little sad – haha! Great response though
.-= Tiffany´s last blog ..New theme =-.
Wow! It always amazes me what people will say out loud. My husband is Hispanic and I’m very fair; once someone asked me if I was my son’s mother. Usually they just say something like, “He must look like his dad.” I love how you handled it!