Posts tagged parenting
Using a Receipt as a Check: Where Your Treasure Lies

"What does valuable mean?"

I had to ponder that question and figure out how to explain "valuable" to a child. How do you explain how worth is assigned, how we decide what has value and what doesn't? 

It all happened in the drive-thru lane. I handed her the sandwich and my five year old decided to hold on to the receipt. She was excited, like she had something worth keeping. I explained the receipt had no value and couldn't be used like money. "It is my check," she said, more than once. She didn't understand and kept asking why she couldn't use there receipt like a check.  I explained that it was not valuable. Which led to her question, "what does valuable mean?" I did my best to explain. "Then why do you keep them in your wallet?"

Read More
Aunt Jemima, Jezebel, and the Pine-Sol Lady: Mothering Against the Perceived Grownness of Black Girls

When my oldest daughter was a mere 18 months old, I shared some pictures from our family vacation. Someone commented that she looked like she had an “attitude.” She was 18 months old. She was having fun in the sprinklers and was posing.

It never occurred to me that if I as a Black woman (symbolically) was portrayed as the maid and revealed a hidden figure, hyper-sexualized, portrayed as the sassy Black woman that my Black daughter would be exempt.

Read More