Different doesn’t mean weird

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Dear Tessie,

My son came home from school last week talking about how his “weird” friend doesn’t celebrate holidays, and saying things like, “that’s weird, right, Dad?” How can I explain this kind of stuff and get my kid to understand that it’s not really polite to call your friends weird over it?

Thanks,

Dale

 

Dear Dale,

We humans don’t change a whole awful lot from generation to generation. I wish it was that way, but somehow this question comes back up with every one. If there were drastic changes maybe it wouldn’t even be a problem anymore.

I don’t know that you need to really ask for my advice here, though. You just tell it to him like it is, dear. I understand once upon a time these subjects might’ve been difficult to approach, but life moves at such a fast pace now days that I can’t imagine trying to sugar coat anything about that.

Folks are simply different from each other. From one town to the next, from one house to the next on the same block, everyone has different customs and cultures, not just folks from different countries. Your friends have different habits and schedules than what you do, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

There’s destined to be other children that look, think, act, speak, or something different from your son, in every place he goes. Sometimes those folks will be more different than others, but more different doesn’t make them weird, it just makes them not the same. But who wants to be the same as everyone else anyway?

Love,

Tessie