We’ve our own little fun Q&A for the Vander Veen family:
Q: What makes you smart?
A: NPR (national public radio)
Q: And what makes you stupid?
A: Sponge Bob’s Square Pants and TV like it.
I am an NPR junkie. The girls and I listen to it on the way to school and on the way back. Sometimes we play songs. But most times we listen to NPR.
And, oddly (and proudly), they do listen. Often they don’t get what’s being said, but they pick up sentences and phrases and then ask questions.
So car rides become lessons in whatever topic of the moment NPR focuses on.
Which, this past week, was homosexuality. NPR ran the tape of Obama sharing his evolving thought.
Q: Papi? What’s a homosexual marriage?
A: It’s when two guys or two girls decide to marry each other.
Silence as this is processed. Then,
Q: Does that mean they have sex?
A: Um, yes.
Long silence followed by a very puzzled question.
Q: How?
At this point I try and wrap up the conversation because, frankly, I wasn’t going to try and explain the concept to them while driving to school (Monica to Kelly: “Now Kelly, we don’t talk about this with our friends because some families are different.”). We’ve a very handy book that helps explain all things surrounding sex and I wanted to wait until we were at home to tackle that difficult question.
That said, there was a moral question also being asked here. That is, what did mommy and papi think of this “homosexual marriage” thing? It’s something our church denomination is wrestling with (I would argue much of our country is wrestling with) and Renee and I have also grown in our view points if you will. Speaking personally, I’m more inclined to think we should separate a civil marriage from a religious marriage (like many European nations do) and maintain the spirit of our first amendment (separation of church and state).
But these are complex issues to a 6 and 8 year old. So we try and keep things simple.
At least until NPR complicates the next thing!