Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I welcome advice on how to manage these conversations more effectively

Evan: "What does retartive mean?

Eric: "Evan, where did you hear that word?"

Evan: "What word?"

Eric: "Retarded."

Evan: "It's retartive. Zach was singing a song at school. And then he said he was just being retartive."

Eric: "It's retarded, and it's kind of a mean word. People use it to mean that something or someone isn't very smart. If someone's using it to describe himself, he's just joking and that's not as bad. But you shouldn't really ever use it because it's a mean word that could hurt someone's feelings."

Evan: "Oh."

Eric: "And I'm telling you what the word is and what it means because I don't want you to hurt anyone's feelings. It's good to know what words mean, so that you know which ones to use and which ones not to use."

Evan: "Yeah. Which is why Elias needs to know what the a-word is. Which is why I told him."

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

As the mother of one child with special needs, I say "well done." It'd take too long but I'd love to share the conversation I had with my boys about what "gay" means. One of them had used it in a derogative way and what ensued was nothing short of hilarious...

Eric said...

Thanks so much, Elizabeth. Yes, "gay" is another word I dread having to define and counter-define. The day is coming.