Pink Fish Blue Fish
Arlo insists this is a “go-earl (girl) snowman” though he cannot articulate why. Or it’s not that he can’t it’s just obvious to him and he doesn’t understand why we don’t see it too. A nice little preview into the rest of parenthood.
Arlo has been sharing a lot of ideas about gender lately.
He pointed to this ornament and declared, “This is the Mommy fish,” then turned to the blue one and said “and this is the Daddy fish.”
“Mommies drive cars and Daddies drive trucks.” Our family has one vehicle, it is a car.
“This is a go-earl shark so it doesn’t bite.”
“Oh? Girl sharks don’t bite?”
“No.”
“What if it was a boy shark?”
“THEN IT WOULD EAT YOU UP!”
I started to explain how both girl and boy sharks can bite but then stopped lest the child never go swimming again.
He has all these ideas about gender but applies none of the labels to his family or himself. This is after all, the boy who every day dons a pink hat and to whom a party is not a party until he’s wearing pink eyeshadow with sparkle highlights.
It is a topic of endless fascination to me but one upon which I tread lightly. I think he’s telling me what he hears but showing me what he feels and I’ll do everything in my power to keep those feelings free.
I’ll meet you at the end of that great big, broad rainbow, Dear Son. You bring the sparkles.
