How would you handle this situation?
The ignorance of people never ceases to amaze me.
I do need to divulge a little personal information to put this story in its proper context. I have dark hair and eyes, but am not sure of my ethnic heritage because I do not know my father. My mom is Caucasian, but I don’t really look like her. If I had to guess, I would suspect that I may be Native American as well, but your guess is as good as mine.
So here’s my story:
There is a mother in our parent-child program who is somewhat annoying. Up to this point, it hasn’t really been a big deal. In general, she tends to be very judgmental towards others and likes to gossip. She’s not someone I have a lot in common with, and I’m not there to make best friends. I’ve always been polite to her, but in general I tend to keep my distance.
At the end of class last week, another parent was asking me about the summer program. This woman interjects, and asks about my other child – she wanted to know why was I not enrolling my 2-year-old when my other son was going to be participating.
I politely informed her that I only have one kid, and perhaps she has me mixed up with someone else. She asks the teacher who she has me mixed up with. It’s a small school, so the teacher responded with the lady’s name right away.
This mother responds, “Oh yeah, the Mexican!”
The teacher says, “Um, actually, she’s Japanese.”
Hold on folks, it gets better…
The mother then looks at me and says, “I don’t know, all you brown people look the same to me.”
At this point the other mom’s jaws need to be picked up off the floor. One lady actually gasped, which I thought was a nice effect.
I replied, “I’m not even going to respond to that statement. Have a great weekend everyone!” I took my son, and walked out the door (we were on our way out anyways).
Maybe it is just me, but I really don’t think this woman is going to change. Therefore, I felt it would be a waste of my time to open a can of whoop-#$% on her. Also, there were other children in the room.
I’m not sure what happened after I left, and am interested to see if anything is said this week.
So here’s my question – in my shoes, would you have done anything differently?
Wow… I cannot believe she said that. Some people are so rude!
I think you handled it beautifully. This woman is a gossip, and an ill-educated one at that. She doesn’t deserve your time or energy.
I’m sure it is obvious to everyone who was there who the “bigger” person is!
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Thanks for the support – we’ll see what happens tomorrow, when we attend our last class for the year. We may not go there anymore (cost, gas prices, not sure if our son has much more to gain from their curriculum), but I don’t want to leave on a bad note!
Hi,
I am sorry that you have to go through that.
I am a Chinese by decent but I look more of a pacific islander because of my curly hair and big eyes (I am not the typical slender straight hair small eye Chinese lady , ha ha ha). I was born in an island belong to a country call Malaysia.
I am always amused by people here (Americans) who asked me if Malaysia is in China.
I have a Western name which is Jamy but my teachers, classmates assume it is Jamie.
People can be rude and ignorant everywhere, not just in the US.
My son is going to be 5 this June. I am so happy that he is being accepted to a school which combine school and home school. He will go to school 3 days and I home school him 2 days.
Thank for dropping by my blog.
Jamy
Jamy,
I would be really interested in knowing about the program you are in – I have never heard of anything like it, but would love more information.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sure, it is call cornerstone academy. This is the link : http://cornerstone.st/index.php
This is what attracted us : “Our Classic University Model program of study takes place on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, while parents oversee home study with teacher-directed lesson plans on Monday and Thursday.”
We sat in the class for about 1 hr, was extremely impressed by the teachers and the kids (k-5), very interactive and yet very discipline. Because it is such a good school, a lot of parents wanted to send their kids in and we are very happy that he gets selected in out many kids cos there is only 1 vacancy open for k5.
My child is a bit gifted, check out the piano recital he did this year : http://www.seaykopitiam.com/2008/04/30/a-piano-recital-by-a-4-years-old/
A lot of people think I force my kid to study at young age. In fact, I am very guilty for not taking a lot of care on him because the last few years I went back to school and had hardly anytime for myself. If there is anything that I imparted to this boy is love for learning.
My husband wanted me to home school but I hesitate cos we have only 1 child and we do not have any family here in town. Though we go to a nice church and families in the church all home school but I would like my child to have some interaction with kids around his age. This system work best for me. I work 3 days.
A lot of commitment from parents cos there is a mandatory amt of hrs that is required from parents. I am going to volunteering in computer related stuff.
Cheers
Jamy
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