Making Sense of it All
6:53am.
Me: Hey, you know there’s no school today, right?
Beernut: Oh, yeah. ‘Cause of Martin King Luther, Jr.
Me: Close. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Do you know why Dr. King was so important?
Beernut: Yep. He wanted people to stop fighting.
Me: Anything else?
Beernut: He had a dream.
“I had a dream,” interjected Poppyseed.
“No, not that kind of dream,” retorted Beernut, eyes rolling. “He had a dream that everyone would get along.”
[Now, Beernut is in the second grade and I think that his knowledge of Dr. King’s importance as well as racial issues should be just a little deeper.]
Me: Did you know that there was a time in this country when people whose skin is darker than our weren’t permitted to go to school with people whose skin was light? Or drink out of the same water fountains? Or ride the same buses?
Their eyes widened.
Me: Is that fair?
Kids: No!
Me: Is that what God would want.
Beernut: No. And it’s not what Jesus would want either, right Mom?
[SCREEEETCH! Hold it right there…what did he just say? Did he just say that??]
Me: Um…Beernut? Why would you mention Jesus?
Beernut: Mom, just because we don’t believe in him doesn’t mean that we can’t ever say his name.
Me: True. You know that we don’t think he’s any more special than anyone else, right? People who do are Christian. We’re Jewish so we believe that he was just a good guy but no more special than any other good guy.
Beernut: I know, Mom. I don’t think that God would have had a son anyway. It just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Me: I know, Beernut. And that’s what makes us Jewish.
Am I the only one whose kids make these comments?
Frume Sarah is Shabbos-observant -- in a Reform way, that is. Please note that from Friday afternoons until one hour after sundown on Saturday evenings, Frume Sarah will be unavailable, in observance of the Jewish Sabbath.
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Thank you for your understanding...and gut Shabbos!!! 
Frume Sarah's World 
Oh no, not at all. When my son was four, we enrolled him in Religious School at our old shul. On the first day, the rabbi took all of the preschoolers into the sanctuary, and unrolled the Torah for them to see. He proceeded to tell them all about the Torah, and asked them if they knew who was in the Torah. The answer from my son’s friend waas, you guessed it…
“Jesus!”
Always reassuring to know that I’m not the only one 🙂
My Christian friend told me this story about her 3 year old, who came home from school humming a song about how “only G-d and Kevin” (only G-d in Heaven) “can make a butterfly.” My friend asked, “E, who’s Kevin?” She shrugged, “I dunno” and went back to singing!
i feel your pain, sister.
It just is too funny the things we mishear as kids.
Two examples:
(1) At the end of Havdallah, I could never figure out what “crease” was. As in “may gladness reign and joy and crease.”
[“May gladness reign and joy increase.”
(2) My auditory processing issues should have come to someone’s attention merely by the fact that I thought every story ended with “Ah-men!” Boy was I shocked (and disappointed) to learn that stories end with “The End!” What a boring way to end a tale…
When I was Four, I told My Best Friend (who was Catholic) that she needed to “really love Jesus.” Her mother was So Concerned upon overhearing the conversation, that she promptly Called My MOM and My MOM had a talk with me, explaining that We Were Jewish. Never mind that I was in Jewish Nursery School. My vague recollection of The Whole Ordeal is that I accidentally watched one of those Evangelist Shows on TV. This was Pre-Cable, natch. It was probably The Only Thing On.
Well, besides Sesame Street, that is.