Last week Kayla and I went in to Boston's to pick up the gluten-free pizza I ordered for her.
Kayla, being Kayla, was all over the place. Ok, not too bad this time actually, just up and down from the bench and being very talkative. So the employee at the door couldn't help but notice her.
Several minutes later the pizza was finally ready and we were on our way out.
This employee, an older teen I think, or in her young 20s (I'm not good at guessing ages!), made a comment to me about Kayla.
She said, "She reminds me of my friend's niece." I said something like, "oh she does?" She replied, "yeah she looks like her."
If you have a child with Ds and someone makes a comment like that, 99.9% of the time they are trying to tell you they know someone with Down syndrome.
As I told my mom later - it's like a 'code' phrase to say "Oh I have a sister, cousin, friend etc, that looks like her" or something along those lines.
So it felt only natural to me to reply, "Oh she has Down syndrome too?"
The employee said, "Umm, no. She has blue eyes, blond hair, and the same kind of haircut." (we had just come from getting Kayla's hair cut shorter.)
Oops.
Guess I learned another lesson last week - it's not always about Down syndrome when it comes to my child...and that's nice to know.
Thursday, April 01, 2010
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13 comments:
Goosebumps!! How nice of that teenager:) Some people DO get it! Isn't that nice to know??!!
That happened to us a couple of weeks ago. A sales clerk was talking about her grandson. Who had heart surgery. I said, "yeah, we know all about that". We went on talking, for what seemed like hours. And finally, I asked, if her grandson was born with Down syndrome too?"...She looked at me kind of funny at that point and told me "no"..as she was checking Carly out really closely. Then she asked, "was she?"... Boy were we on two different pages!! I just assumed we were talking about our little one's born with Ds. Oops!
I do exactly the same thing! A friend of mine said that her daughter kept calling the little girl on the diaper box Lily. She said they look a lot alike and of course I replied "Well does the little girl have Down syndrome?" Silly me!!! Great Post!
LOL! I would have thought the same thing!!! Isn't it great when other people see our kids for KIDS!?! Great story! :)
That's awesome.
Great story!!
Oh...that is indeed good to know :) I love this post...I would have thought the same thing too...but kind of refreshing that she was talking about other qualities that reminded her of the other little gal.I love it.
:) I personally think that your two children look remarkably alike and it has nothing to do with the downs..
Awww this was a sweet post Michelle, and really nice of the teenager :)
what a nice post, thanks for sharing. :-)
That's really nice to know. :)
Happy Easter
What a great lesson though. Sometimes we get lessons that are hard and sometimes they are so beautiful. How sweet.
A cute post! It is amazing how many things we just assume in this world. I am so curious to see who my new grandson will look like. Alexys big blue eyes turned green! (Mom has blue, Dad has brown)... Who would have guessed!
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