Annoying little ignorance.

There was a lady standing behind me at Walmart the other day. She was watching me talk to my son, who was getting rather frustrated at having to wait in line while sitting in his stroller. She caught my eye and asked, "Is he yours?"
"Yes," I answered.
She transferred her glance to him again and continued, “He is absolutely beautiful!! Where is he from?”

Obviously this isn’t the first time I’ve had this happen to me… but it has been awhile. His dark skin and curly hair make it obvious to people who are looking that he is not white. However, it seems to me that any person who has been a member of the human race for as long as she has, would have a greater knowledge of genetics. I briefly contemplated telling her he was from heaven, telling her that the stork brought him, or coming up with some other unbelievable story, but instead, I wiped all expression off my face and starred at her… tentatively, I ventured a quiet response… “What do you mean?”

I see no reason why ignorance need be met with an explanation at all. I certainly wasn’t about to launch into an explanation of the birds in the bees to a 50 something year old woman in the middle of Walmart. An apology at this point, would have been profound… but instead she continued…
“OH!!” with big eyes, “You mean he’s YOURS??”
“Yes” I said, wondering to myself why I was still having this conversation.
“OH, I thought you’d adopted him or something.”

I turned around and carried on unloading my groceries.