We’ve been watching a lot of election coverage and apparently the boys have been picking up on that. Seriously, I am not trying to brainwash children into my way of thinking, really I’m not. Last night we were watching TV and Buddy was sitting with me playing with his toy when he made it apparent, and most kids do, how much he was listening. He heard the talk show guy say Obama and he piped up and said ‘Barack Obama.’ He looked at me and said ‘Barack Obama is going to win.’ I suppose a little brainwashing is inevitable.

Kids like to know everything of course so both boys wanted to know who is who and we told them whenever the program showed one of the candidates. Then Buddy stumped me as he is prone to do. He saw Obama and said ‘Barack Obama is the black guy.’

Um, what? He’s 3 1/2 years old and people are still just supposed to be people to him. I couldn’t believe that he was already identifying someone by race and was wondering where in the world that was coming from. I fully admit that any swear word that comes out of their cute little mouths they got from me, but I am careful not to use race as an identifier when speaking about people. Both my boys are mixed race and I’m sure they will have enough to deal with later in life without pressing it upon them about race now.

So then, in a rare moment of brilliance, I asked him ‘Why is Barack Obama the black guy?’ ‘Because he is wearing a black shirt,’ he said as if I should have known. And of course I should have. That is how he picks his team. The Cowboys are the white guys, the Cardinals are the red guys, etc… Whew, I still have some time before the big questions come up.