Part of the adoption process had us taking classes or watching videos on how to adapt in being a multi-racial family. There were all kinds of scenarios of what "might" happen, and then the question..."what would you do?" Well, up to this point I haven't really encountered rude, inconsiderate people. Everyone seems curious and accepting and are definitely drawn by my son's adorable smile. Well, that was until today. I found myself heartbroken. Scott, Yonni, and I were eating lunch today at a chick-fil-a and while Scott was getting our food I took Yonni into the play area. There were no other adults in there and quite a few kids, so I kept an eye on Yonni and watched as he started to climb the tree thing that would eventually lead to the slide. Then out of nowhere, a little kid who was maybe 4 or 5 started yelling at Y...saying, "I DON'T LIKE YOU, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED ON HERE, I DON'T LIKE YOU!!" He continued to yell this over and over at Y and I immediately told him that was not a very nice thing to say and Y was infact allowed to play on that, just like the rest of the kids. Then he stuck his tongue out at me and kept yelling at Yonni. Then he tried to block off one of the stairs. At this point I'm trying to explain to this kid that anyone is allowed to play here, just wishing that this kids mom would show up so I could tell her a word or two. He left to play on something else and Yonni made it to the slide and thought it was awesome and seemed clueless that this kid was even yelling at him. So we go sit with Scott and eat lunch and told Scott what happened and then I just felt stinging tears swim to my eyes. I was so mad that anyone would treat MY precious child like that, especially when there were many other children playing in there. It made me wonder, was it really because my sweet little Yonni was brown that made this child react that way??? I know that I'll never know if that's why, but still...my heart was breaking. After we got done eating, we noticed who this kids mom was. She actually was sitting right outside of the play area, right next to where I was talking to this kid. At no point did she come over to see if everything was ok or not. That made me more mad. Wouldn't you wonder what was going on if some strange woman was talking pretty sternly to your son?? Anyway, at that point I said nothing to her. Now I'm regretting that. Ugh, I don't really even know where I'm going with this...my brain isn't really forming full thoughts at the moment...so I guess that's that. It just made me so mad!
~Ciao
