10 March 2006
ground rules
My aversion to putting my kids on the 'net is still pretty strong, so I'm thinking the ground rules will be something like this: pseudonyms to protect the guilty (all the kids, me, and anybody else I like), but the countries of origin will be real. So people who know me can figure out who we are, and that's ok, but people who don't probably won't (but won't care so that works too).
So, countries of origin: USA, China, Guatemala, Haiti. Planets of origin: mostly Mars, which is where kids really live.
Ages and sexes (no, it's not "genders"): 13 F, 12 F, 10 F, 8 M, 7 M, 5 M.
Obstacles to smooth cultural invisibility: multiracial-ness (I forget that most of my kids do not share my racial origins so I'm always surprised when people ask where they are from--how, I always find myself wondering, did they know?), gender-refusnik-ing, the conviction that getting hair cut hurts, favorite (old, old, old) clothing, very apparent vision/eye disability, dry skin that sucks up and spits out every single "product" expensively designed to prevent same, seriously tightly curled 'black' hair (no, they are NOT African-American, though they are going to wish they were because there's no place on the forms for "Haitian-American"), weird old old old mom, dust bunnies bigger than the pets, pet population too large for smooth conformity to most Homeowners Associations' (may they rot with the crackers, see below) rules, refusal to "develop" at the chronological moments (defined to the year, month, day, and minute) insistently assumed by educational, ahem, research and practice.
I could go on. And no doubt will.
So, countries of origin: USA, China, Guatemala, Haiti. Planets of origin: mostly Mars, which is where kids really live.
Ages and sexes (no, it's not "genders"): 13 F, 12 F, 10 F, 8 M, 7 M, 5 M.
Obstacles to smooth cultural invisibility: multiracial-ness (I forget that most of my kids do not share my racial origins so I'm always surprised when people ask where they are from--how, I always find myself wondering, did they know?), gender-refusnik-ing, the conviction that getting hair cut hurts, favorite (old, old, old) clothing, very apparent vision/eye disability, dry skin that sucks up and spits out every single "product" expensively designed to prevent same, seriously tightly curled 'black' hair (no, they are NOT African-American, though they are going to wish they were because there's no place on the forms for "Haitian-American"), weird old old old mom, dust bunnies bigger than the pets, pet population too large for smooth conformity to most Homeowners Associations' (may they rot with the crackers, see below) rules, refusal to "develop" at the chronological moments (defined to the year, month, day, and minute) insistently assumed by educational, ahem, research and practice.
I could go on. And no doubt will.
