A conversation with Tyler

Tyler: Mom, we have a boy in our class named Nathan like my brother.

Mom: Yes, I've seen him before.

Tyler: Have you seen his dad before?

Mom: Probably.

Tyler: He must eat a lot because he is big.

Mom: What do you mean big, like tall?

Tyler: No, he has a big belly like Santa. Remember how we sang He's too fat for the chimney?

Mom: Yeah

Tyler: Nathan's dad is like that he would be too fat to fit down the chimney.

Mom: (Laughing) Well, we shouldn't say that at school, not to Nathan or his dad ok?

Tyler: Ok, but he really is big.

I have to address Katherine's comment on here because it really is true!! I was complaining about this a few weeks ago. One day I went to pick him up and the teacher motioned me up to the door and said she needed to talk to me. She told me that Tyler had said that one of the parents picking up a student was fat. I was baffled as to how he knew this word. Trent and I don't use it or talk about people this way so we figured one of the kids at school had said it or something. Well, a few weeks later I learned that they were singing this song called, "He's too fat for the chimney," about Santa Claus. It finally clicked. Here they taught these 5-year-olds this song and Tyler had not been introduced to the word fat yet. How was he to know that he couldn't use this word outloud to describe people as a fact when they hadn't talked to them about this word other than teaching it to them in a funny little song? I had NO problem with the song, but if they don't want these kids going around using the word to describe people shouldn't there have been a discussion that it wasn't appropriate to use this word other than in this funny little song? There, there's my rant about a contradictory teaching in the schools. So yes, Katherine, you are absolutely right, it is ALL the school's fault in this situation!! :)