It's As Simple As Crayons

Putting things in simple terms, not only helps 5 year olds, but helps us grownups as well. The older I get the more I realize how nice it is to have little ones ask so many questions to help them understand this world around them, which in turn makes us think to be able to explain for them to understand.

I picked up my bonus 5 year old today with my 11 year old daughter. They are getting so excited for the holiday season... so many parties... so many people coming together to celebrate Christ's birthday. As I am answering what all the party plans are, Kirah and Sidnee are worrying if Sidnee will be able to attend these parties, "will she be here on that weekend?"

I answer, "I will have to look at the calendar, but no worries these parties are my family not dad's"... I am Sidnee's bonus (step) mother.

"Oh" they both chimed...

"Why is it different?" they ask. They have felt the difference, but why IS it different?

I explain to them, "It's like Dad is a blue crayon, I am a red crayon and Sidnee's mom is a yellow crayon... that makes Kirah, Dallen and Kai purple crayons and Sidnee a green crayon... we are all crayons, but some crayons go really well together and some crayons don't."

They both totally loved how simple that made it. I continued to ponder this crayon analogy metaphor to adoption and step parent families. Kai is a purple crayon that was raised by orange crayons... he has a bit of red in him as does orange... but orange is such an opposite color of purple being made from yellow/red instead of blue/red.

In my own life, let's say my mother was a blue crayon and my father a red... making my sister and I different shades of purple... as my children could be considered; Kai being a dark shade, Dallen a medium shade and Kirah a light shade... as is their hair and eyes, Kai's are dark, Dallen's are medium and Kirah's are light... My mother divorces my father and go finds her a yellow crayon to marry and he brings his daughter, an orange crayon, to come live with us. Growing up I had my mother/red, my step father/yellow, my older sister/orange and my younger sister/purple and me/purple.

I remember how conflicting this picture was with the different colors to paint this picture. I loved going to the red or blue family reunions/parties but I hated going to the yellow family reunion parties. I felt so out of place with all these shades of yellow.

I have always offended with my honesty of being a different color and wanting to color with my own shades. But when you are here to figure out what pictures you can paint with your shade it is helpful to have similar shades showing you.