Saturday, June 13, 2009

Awkward moment

I was doing a Mommy assisted event at my son's school and I ended up with one of those moments where you wish you could have done better. Here is what happened

Other Mom: Hi, I am X
Me: Hi, I'm __. Nice to meet you blah, blah, blah
Other Mom: Which child is yours?
Me: Oh, my child BB other there in the green. Which child is yours?
Other Mom: Oh, my daughter is little X.
Me: I don't know the girls. Which one is she?
Other Mom: Oh, there she is, over there in the red hat.
Me: Oh.

Now, the child she pointed to is of another race. Her father might be of that race or she might be adopted. I had one of those moments where I drew a blank. Maybe in my mind, I was ready to comment something like "She looks like you" or something like that. Instead I drew a blank and felt like a jerk. Sigh.

What should I have said? I suck at small talk.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess you coould comment on what she was doing, or whetehr or not she seemd to be enjoying herself etc.

Joy said...

I had the same experience - I met a couple who were white and their child was a beautiful African-American girl. Obviously she was a different race, but there was some chance she could have been the child of one of the couple from a previous marriage somehow. I didn't think I could bring up the issue of her being adopted myself, but I wanted to break the ice and hear about her adoption because I love those kind of stories. I could not figure out how to do it. So I just kept remarking on how beautiful she was. I wish there was a way to say "hey, what a beautiful child, where / how did you get her?" without being annoying.

Yo-yo Mama said...

"She's pretty!"

"How old is she?"

"Where did you find her hat?"

"How do you get her to keep her hat on?"

Now it would seem like I would have said plenty, except I had a bit to think about it w/o pressure. I suck at small talk, too.