We went RV’ing this weekend to the Sequim(Skwim)/Port Angeles KOA. We aren’t ready to tow the truck behind the RV yet, but we really wanted a few days away. We know that KOA’s are a little pricey but as a last minute planner I knew it was a reliable place for pretty cool kid/family activities and we could also chill around a campfire.
Root beer float night, BINGO and a monster bike ride later I knew I had made the right decision. After a fun few days everyone seemed content to hang around the RV in front of the campfire for the last day. We totally scored some huge pieces of wood from a checkout earlier in the day and it helped our cause of keeping the flames going all day. A small bundle of wood was $6.00! We forgot to bring our own and that really adds up!
Monday afternoon we took Milo and Phoenix to the playground. The turf was that really dusty gray sand that of course every child wants to bury themselves in. Lucky me, because all I wore were flip flops and I don’t like hate that kind of sand. Beach sand is barely acceptable but this dusty, nasty shit drives me crazy. When it rubs between my toes, I end up with goosebumps the whole time I’m walking. It’s that fingernail on the chalk board effect, except I get chills just thinking about a chalkboard.
At the playground there were a bunch of other children in the usual 6-10 range. There was also a lot of the usual unsupervised playground behavior. There was some pushing, some teasing, a little name calling and of course crying. Times like this I’m reminded how awesome my kids are. Especially, after witnessing one child kick another in the face with sneakers, I was feeling quite blessed to be the family we are.
Just when I was basking in the glory of my spawn of perfection, (and don’t worry they won’t be anything less with the rest of this story) I started to notice that Milo was having to defend his hair a little. Of course he gets called a girl an awful lot. He has long red locks and the cutest little freckly face. This time was different, these kids didn’t believe him. They told him, “You’re lying. You’re a girl. You look like a girl and you act like a girl and you sound like a girl.” Milo took it all in stride giggling it away. He did confide later that this bothers him “a lot, but not that much”.
There was one child who Milo kept trying to talk to and his other friend kept instructing him not to talk to Milo. I have no idea why. It was the weirdest thing. This kid would block Milo from whatever he was trying to do and purposely get in his way. He also audibly told his friend to “don’t listen and just go away”. Um… excuse me? I was so confused by this. Have these kids REALLY never seen a boy with long hair? I mean yeah, it’s longer than most boys with long hair but STILL. Are we so far out of the way of civilization that long haired men have escaped their radar? Basically, the kid was mean from what I’m pretty sure was based on looks. He just didn’t like the way Milo looked. Huh. Discrimination based on hair length. I thought we saw the end of that in the freakin’ seventies. Guess I was wrong.
We’re home now, and I just gave Phoenix a hair cut to even it out. He has this wild mixture of straight baby hair and thick wavy hair. I offered the other boys trims. Milo said, “No way”. I’m so glad to know that he doesn’t feel the need to change to fit in or be accepted. I love that kid.
