One of my kids asked me today if it was okay to tell “Yo Mama” jokes. Of course, I said no. I explained that some people didn’t have mothers, and those jokes would hurt those people.
He didn’t really understand what I said.
“Everyone has a mom, Ms. Chu.”
So I explained that I had grown up with just my dad and my brother, because my parents were divorced and I didn’t have a mom at home. That jokes like “Yo Mama” jokes would’ve really hurt me when I was younger.
The table of third grade boys looked down at their lunches in silence. I was worried I had ruined the mood for their lunch. They murmured amongst themselves how they could never imagine their parents divorcing and that it wasn’t possible in their family. I asked if we had any divorced families in our class - we didn’t. Some of them agreed that having parents split up was sad. They thought it was sad I didn’t grow up with a mom.
And then Jacob looked up at me and smiled.
“But now you have 28 kids, Ms. Chu.”
:)