Because She Likes Blue

The purpose of this blog is to be an outlet for sharing the things I make and bake. This entry is off topic from that but I thought still worth sharing. And if you wanted to tie it back to craftiness, I did make the girl. *wink*

One of my favorite local thrift stores has everything half price each Monday. This past Monday my 5yo daughter looked through all the Barbie dolls to see if there was one worth buying for 50¢. Among all the similar shaped blonde dolls, my girl found a doll she liked. A beautiful ballerina doll. She was very excited. That evening before bed she asked me to help her name her new doll. I tossed out a few names: Brittany,  April, Joy, Tiana...

"Stop. Mom, why did you say Tiana?"

"Because you like the Princess and the Frog movie and that's the princess's name."

"I know why you said Tiana! Because this doll wears BLUE and Tiana likes blue and wears BLUE! I like blue too!"

Blue Ballerina, Rainbow Bear and Ariel hanging out in Princess Fierce's Room

For just a split second I was afraid my daughter was going to draw a different color connection. But children just don't think along those lines unless adults color their perceptions. I can't change the history of race relations in America. I was not a party to the injustice done before I was born. But what I can do is a small thing with a huge ripple. I can raise my children to not see skin color first. To not see skin color as an indication to the type of person behind it. My kids obviously notice we all have different skin and hair color. But to them there is no difference in the person beneath. We're all people worth getting to know. There's more information given by the color and type of clothes we choose to wear than the color our bodies were born with.

My daughter likes to tell people she's five now but knows things her mom doesn't. She  likes to tell strangers that kids can teach adults things too. It's truer than she can comprehend. Children can teach us so much but we also must be so diligent to make sure we teach them the right things too.