Lawn Mowers and Childhood Development

Our lawn mower decided to give up last week. My husband was mowing the lawn, my son was watching him from my bedroom window and I was checking my e-mail when we all heard the same sound. It was an indescribable shrill metal sound that ended in complete silence. My son phrased it best – uh oh.

Off we went to the mall to buy a new lawn mower. In our effort to become more and more green, we bought an electric mower, instead of gas. According to the sales representative, they are more durable than the gas mowers and they are much quieter. We haven’t actually taken it out of the box yet, but I’ll let you know when we do.

Anyhow, what does this have to do with childhood development? While my husband was trying to choose a mower, my son and I went to the kid’s play area. I like the one at our mall because there is only one exit. I can easily station myself at the entrance and make sure he can’t escape.

Recently, I have noticed that my son is becoming more and more self-aware. He talks about us being Korean and he points to other Asian people and calls them Korean. (I don’t have enough energy to try and explain the multitude of Asian nations yet. We’ll do that later.) For the most part, in his world, you are either Korean or you’re not Korean.

We walked into the play area and there were kids running everywhere. He took off his shoes and took off running before I had even taken a seat. Suddenly, he came running back. “What’s wrong?” I asked. He looked puzzled. “Mama, why are all the peoples Black?” I was stunned. I looked around and sure enough all of the kids in the play area happened to be Black. “That’s just the way it is today,” I told him. He shrugged his shoulders and took off running again, leaving me to contemplate when he had developed to this new stage.