Brown Like Me

A few days ago Little Man painted Princess B brown. Now if you know Little Man, you know he is a lovely shade of brown, while Princess B sports a pinkish tint. When I discovered the deed, I had a bit of a mind freak. In the course of a minute, I agonized over the mess, whether she ate any of the paint, and, of course, why did he choose brown? There were many other colors of paint to choose from and he picked brown.

Now I calmed down and immediately told myself not to make a big deal of it. He probably just grabbed the closest paint. He isn't trying to subconsciously tell us something. But what if he was?

When you adopt out side of your race, you face many challenges. Anyone that tries to deny this is being naive. It is a common assumption that families are supposed to match each other and people tend to get a bit judgemental when they don't. I think this is changing, but it hasn't completely. There are white and black people who do not think it is right for white people to adopt children of color. I know that I sometimes get distracted by being defensive about what other people think about our family. What I need to be doing is helping Little Man develop self confidence and pride in who he is and make sure he knows he is infinitely loved.

So that brings us to the point where he has painted his sister brown. Was he trying to make her look like him? Is this better than him trying to paint himself pink or white? Or did he just happen to choose the brown paint and next time he will try and paint her blue. I don't know the answer to these questions, but I know he goes to bed happy at night and I guess that is what matters the most at this age.