I'm pretty sure I made some sort of half-hearted promise earlier in the week about an uplifting post coming. It will just have to wait until Bee returns to blogging after spending some quality time in a romantic locale (which may or may not be your friendly neighborhood Air Force base) with Señor Marine. Because I'm fairly certain she's not wasting one second of together time in front of the computer.
Today I had the pleasure of meeting a woman who firmly disproves any of Darwin's theories about evolution or survival of the fittest. Seriously, people, a person this dense should have theoretically been weeded out centuries ago. And yet she's here, she's nearing retirement age, and I can only assume has procreated. So explain that to me, Charles Darwin.
Our conversation started when I told her I had two sets of twins. And she was justifiably impressed with me. Then it came up that they were adopted. To which she replied, "So do you have any of your own?"
Let me interject here... I can guarantee any of my many adoptive mom friends (3 or 4 of whom read this blog) have had to answer this question. And, like me, have felt obligated to answer using the correct terminology. I've never been angry about someone asking this question, just glad to have the chance to educate Joe Public about adoption.
So, I answered with a smile, "Well, they're all our own. But, yes, all five of our kids are adopted."
Usually this is where the lightbulb goes on, the other party understands and the conversation moves on.
She nodded seriously. "So do you have any real kids?"
At this point, I'm pretty sure I just looked bewildered and she looked like the one who knew what was going on. (Can I point out that Aquaman was listening to all this right next to me and never once looked up from his magazine? Thanks for the help, hon.)
Kind of baffled, I kept smiling and said, "Our kids are all real. Their tantrums are very, very real."
And thus ended our session of Politically Correct Adoption Speak 101. I think we all got failing grades.
--Kae--
Oh my word. Probably what would have come out of my mouth is that "my kids are all real you douche-bag". Even though I am trying really hard to stop using that word, but it rears its ugly head in situations like this. And I am sorry for typing it on your blog. Or I would have said something equally intelligent like "do they look fake to you?" Bravo for not taking it as low as I probably would have.
ReplyDeleteUse whatever language you want, someone needs to take care of upping the rating on this blog to PG-13.
DeleteThese random conversations only work because I'm dense enough to not be offended until I'm thinking about it 8 hours later. Then I get mad and have no outlet because the moron's long gone.