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Answers / Parenting / Preschoolers (3-4)
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I think my son just noticed Black People! lol

My youngest is 3. We were watching Independence Day and all of a sudden he points to Will Smith and screamed "Mom, his ears is black and he gots a black head!!!"

I honestly laughed out loud! HAHA!!

So we explained to him that different people look different, but that they are still all people, just like him... He said, "I like purple!" I don't think he completely got it, but it was an interesting talk...

How did you know your kids noticed other races? How did you explain it to them? How old were they? My oldest has never made a big deal out of it. He's noticed but never cared - I know he noticed cause he told me about his new girlfriend (some girl he met at McDonalds) and he called her his "brown friend," he's 4. So I was a little caught off guard for this out of the lil one... I'm fine with it & happy about how it all went, but I wondered about how it happened for others...

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SabrinaMBowen

Asked by SabrinaMBowen at 8:16 PM on Nov. 11, 2010 in Preschoolers (3-4)

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Answers (16)
  • My son never really pointed it out to me but when he talks about the kids in his class he usually says so and so is black or brown its so cool how color doesnt bother kids like it does so many adults.
    bhoward87

    Answer by bhoward87 at 8:25 PM on Nov. 11, 2010

  • My husband's best friend owns a lawn care business. One of the guys who works for him is black. We were at said friend's house, and that guy happened to be there. My son asked me "Why is he brown?" I think I just said something about different people being different colors. I wasn't really sure what to say beyond that, and he lost interest in the subject anyway.

    I just hope he doesn't pick up too much from my husband's father. It's a good thing they live two states away.
    makelineerror

    Answer by makelineerror at 8:26 PM on Nov. 11, 2010

  • I love children's innocence :) I had a little boy come into the movie theater and his his mom if I had tanned too much lol, it was cute to me but my friend took offense for some reason. I wish adults could be more open minded about the whole "race issue" ya know. We're all the same, we just have different pigments
    Dark-N-Prego

    Answer by Dark-N-Prego at 8:49 PM on Nov. 11, 2010

  • my oldest is 3, and did something similar... but it was with a child with a scar on his face... she kept saying "mama, his face is dirty, he needs a wipe" very innocently... and i explained to her what a scar was (she has her own from hip surgeries) and she was then fine with it... she didn't treat him any differently, just didn't understand WHAT was on his face. she has made some comments about people that are Indian that they were dirty or sunburnt (she confuses sunburt and tan) and we just talked about how they weren't dirty, (and she didn't mean unclean, just dark) but just different... she had no issues and is open to it.
    asil

    Answer by asil at 9:01 PM on Nov. 11, 2010

  • My son has never notice. I guess b/c we do not really make a big deal of it. We do not look at color at all when describing someone.
    Mom2Just1

    Answer by Mom2Just1 at 9:22 PM on Nov. 11, 2010

  • When my friend's little sister was about 1 she saw this little black baby with pig tails and a fluffy jacket at the mall - she ran over all excited yelling "Teddy bear!" I guess they appologized and whisked her away before she managed to hug the baby. :)

    On a different note, I'm a brown person, but I never really internalized it until I was in the 10th grade. Someone made the first racist comment pointed at me that I ever heard and suddenly I looked at my arms and realized "Hey, I'm not white and that means something to some people." It was a weird moment. I guess I'm lucky I grew up around a lot of good people.
    Sebbiemama

    Answer by Sebbiemama at 9:25 PM on Nov. 11, 2010

  • My oldest son was in love with a beautiful, sweet Hispanic little girl named Esmerelda when he was 4. Her family lived beside my FIL so he saw her often. He came home from FIL's one day all upset and I asked what was wrong. He said, "Why am I so....white? Why can't I be like Esmerelda? She's so brown and pretty?" I almost fell over laughing. I told him that the reason she was tan is because of her heritage. A few years later, my middle son was infatuated with a lady that did home health for my FIL. I asked FIL which lady it was, because there were a few and he said, "the black lady named Lettie." My middle son said, "She's not black! My Lettie is BROWN, Pop." I have to say, my sons have been little flirts since they were small and they've never cared about skin color. I hope they stay that way!
    Mrs.B3

    Answer by Mrs.B3 at 1:11 AM on Nov. 12, 2010

  • my dd is 3.5 & she hasn't noticed yet.
    Ashlynnsmommy07

    Answer by Ashlynnsmommy07 at 1:42 AM on Nov. 12, 2010

  • I knew my dd had noticed when she asked why my friend was brown. I though it was funny when a couple weeks ago we were looking at a pictures of her class (hubby takes her while I'm at work so I don't know who is who) and I said "Is the asian boy anthony?" And she told me "No mom he is a new yorker like me. Thats to far for him to go to my school."
    MooNFaeRie30

    Answer by MooNFaeRie30 at 5:49 AM on Nov. 12, 2010

  • I remember noticing when I was about 10 that my brother (adopted) is a different race. Yeah, took me long enough. My kids never took issue since I'm white and daddy's brown. There are a bunch of different colors in our family, so it's just been the norm for them.
    Pnukey

    Answer by Pnukey at 11:39 AM on Nov. 12, 2010

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Answers / Parenting / Preschoolers (3-4)

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