I didn’t give black men a lot of thought as I dated the white man who would later become my husband. It’s my relationship, not theirs. At any rate, Clutch magazine asked a few black men what they think when they see a black woman on someone else’s arm. Check it out.
This post is inspired by an item I read at See Theo Run. The blogger participated in the panel “Family Matters: Blogging the Parenting Experience” at the Northern Voice 2010 Personal Blogging and Social Media Conference. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I blog. I said I would blog for a year and then decide whether I wanted to continue. The year is almost gone. I definitely will continue and expand the site. Stay tuned for more on that.
I’ve edited the questions and added one of my own. I know many of Honeysmoke’s readers are bloggers. I would love to see your responses here or on your own sites.
1. Complete this sentence. I blog … to share my experience, provide resources to parents raising biracial and multiracial children, write openly about race, and help build a community of biracial and multiracial parents. It’s also fun to blog.
2. Complete this sentence. I do not blog for … acceptance, money or free merchandise.
I am who I am, and I am cool with that. Advertisements would change the tenor and tone of Honeysmoke, and I don’t like how ads clutter some sites. Companies, public relations firms and marketers know when they give away items bloggers are more likely to give the product a good review. I own the books and products I write about on Honeysmoke. Sometimes I borrow books from the public library, and I always let the reader know when I do.
3. Have you established personal boundaries around the topics you blog about?
Yes. I steer clear of using words that appear innocent but that others search for not-so-innocent use. I know the day will come when the girls will ask me not to write about them. Until then, I try not to write anything I think they may find embarrassing later. Yes, I know I will fail miserably on this point. I also filter and moderate comments on the blog.
4. What do you think about the idea that a child’s image should be private (or shared only among friends and family) until they are old enough to decide for themselves?
I don’t use a lot of images of Simone and Nadia on the blog. I like to illustrate posts with photographs and images available under a creative commons license. When I do use pictures of the girls, the pictures are either old, small, taken from a distance, or their faces are obscured in some way.
Simone had been chatting away when I noticed a black hole. A flash of her signature smile confirmed it. One of her bottom teeth had gone AWOL.
Simone delighted in the tooth’s absence, and I had a question. How much does a tooth go for these days? A quick survey revealed some Tooth Fairies pay upward of $5 per tooth. This Tooth Fairy was willing to pay that amount, but the Tooth Fairy Co-Conspirator thought that was a bit much. Per tooth? Are you kidding me? No way.
I reminded the Tooth Fairy Co-Conspirator that children discuss these things and word would soon get around that the Tooth Fairy had lowered her rates. The rate, though, wasn’t really the issue. I wanted something different and meaningful. The survey had revealed some Tooth Fairies give silver dollars in exchange for lost teeth. This information gave me an idea. Simone has been reading about Sacagawea, the Shoshone Indian guide who assisted Lewis and Clark as they traveled west.
Sacagawea has her own gold-colored coin. Perfect. A gift and a history lesson. There was only one problem. Where does the Tooth Fairy get one of those on the weekend and on such short notice? The answer, for now, is the Tooth Fairy didn’t find the coveted Sacagawea. The Tooth Fairy Co-Conspirator went to the grocery store and found one of those golden presidential dollars with the Statue of Liberty on one side.
After all of that trouble, Simone didn’t look under her pillow the next morning, until I asked her whether she had received anything special. She admired her new gold coin and then placed it in her piggy bank for safekeeping. As for the Tooth Fairy, she will order a roll of Sacagawea dollars from the U.S. Mint, because the next missing tooth is just around the corner.
One Simone graduation down, many more to go. Ken and I are now the proud parents of a preschool graduate. Yes, I chuckled right after I typed that. We didn’t bestow any gifts on Simone for the achievement, but I spotted at least one balloon and a rose at the event. Simone skipped to the podium, where she received a diploma and a puppy signed by her classmates and teachers. For the record I did not cry, didn’t even get misty-eyed. Bring it on, kindergarten!
Simone shifted her weight from left to right, after we entered the Big Kid School. I had not seen that little dance. Ken signed her in, and I paid for all of her major school supplies for the 2010-11 school year. (Love this!) Then we made our way to the cafeteria. Simone wrote her name on a tag and received a “good job” from a teacher. She beamed as she walked around the cafeteria. “A happy one,” another teacher said.
Simone and about 50 other rising kindergartners dined on doughnuts, grapes, strawberries and juice. Parents, meanwhile, received instruction in the finer points of child drop-off and pick-up. Don’t park and let the child walk to the door of the school. (No problem.) Kindergarten parents must use the lane closest to the school for drop-off. (Will do.) Simone then reported her tummy hurt. I tickled her and said she had a few butterflies in there. A few kisses made them fly away.
Parents and their children toured the school in groups. Simone held our hands as we walked the halls of this strange land. We saw a few sixth-graders, and they looked so big in comparison to the children taking the tour. Simone stood on her tip toes and peered inside the computer lab, and she marveled at all of the books in the library. “You can take them to the table and read them,” she told us. We also stopped in a kindergarten room. When the teacher told her class to gather around, Simone joined them. She returned to our sides when she realized she wasn’t familiar with the book the children were reading. Our last stop was the multipurpose room.
There is no doubt in my mind. Simone is ready for kindergarten. As we were leaving, she called her current school the “old preschool.”
