We're Getting into the Really Hard Questions Here

A few months ago we gave Hannah an old radio/CD player for her room. We figured that since she had all of her Hannah Montana and High School Musical CD's that we should give her something to listen to them with. Bill even made her a special CD with other songs that she liked on it. It was mostly songs from movies like Alvin and the Chipmunks, Enchanted and Chicken Little. She thought that having her own radio was the greatest thing ever and now listens to music in her room almost everyday. She has even gotten Alexander into it and most days you can find them in her room dancing around and singing along to whatever's they happen to put on.

A couple of weeks ago Hannah watched Hairspray (the new one with John Travolta) with me and absolutely loved it. She enjoyed it so much that she batted her eyelashes and asked Bill to make her a CD with the soundtrack on it. Since Bill rarely says no to anything this child wants (she has SO got him wrapped around her little finger) he quickly downloaded it and made it for her and it is now her favorite CD. She and Alexander listen to it ALL the time and they are starting to sing along more and more. It's really cute to see them so into the music.

Well anyone that knows Hannah or has heard anything about her knows that she's full of questions and last night was no exception. As I was putting dinner on the table Hannah comes out of her room and is sitting down when askes up "What's negro day?" One of the songs is about the Corney Collins (dance show) and makes a comment about one day a month being "Negro Day" on the show. Bill and I looked at eachother with that Oh Crap look and tried to figure out how to explain segregation to a 5 1/2 year old. We were speechless for a second or two and I was a little surprised at the question. I don't know why I was surprised - she asks surprising stuff like this all of the time but it's usually about babies or death or the differences between boys and girls or things like that. I didn't expect to have to answer things like this until she learned about them in school. Shame on me for underestimating my smart little girl!!

I guess that Bill and I did an okay job of explaining it. We told her that negro was a term used a long time ago and that while it wasn't a bad word it isn't a word that's used anymore because it's rude. We told her about how whites and blacks weren't allowed to do things together and how people who thought that everyone should be treated the same fought to stop the separation and eventually won. Then we reminded her that we shouldn't judge people by the color of their skin or where they live or how much money they have, etc. and how God created us all equally and that we are all the same on the inside.

Other then the talk I had with Hannah about love and why some people are married and some are divorced (yes, she asked about that too) and the death talk, I think that this is one of the most serious talk we've had with her. As usual, once it was over she looked at us and said "Okay". I made sure that she didn't have anymore questions and that was that. I'd like to say that this is the end of the conversation but I know that she's just procssing what we said and she will bring it up again when she is ready or when she thinks of a question about it. Then it will start all over again. Hopefully we will be able to help her understand more once that time comes. But I'm not going to worry about that just yet. For now I am just trying to prepare myself for the next outrageous question that she throws our way!