Parenting Outtakes 2

I had some new neighbors move in the house behind mine recently. One day, I noticed my three-year-old was all up in their business as they were trying to set up a swing set, so I went out to collect him and introduce myself. I noticed they had kids close to the same age as mine, so I was excited to meet them and hope that I could make some new friends in the neighborhood!

I went over and struck up some conversation. They seemed very friendly, and the woman was so easy to talk to! I was excited to try to get to know her better. Her kids started running around and playing with my kids while we chatted.

We got on a conversation about schooling, and she told me she was homeschooling at the moment and looking at private schools in the future to help control what her kids were exposed to. As a private school teacher myself, I started talking to her about some of the privates in the area to get a feel for what she was looking at. At that moment, her oldest came up and said, “Mom, those kids said, ‘What the heck!’”

My neighbor told her child it was okay and sent him back to play and apologized for him being a tattle-tale. I said that was no problem, but I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Jeeze, talk about terrible timing!” given our conversation topic.

We continued talking about random other things getting to know each other. All of a sudden, her child came back giggling and said, “Mom, they’re talking about pee-pees!”

I haven’t seen them outside since that conversation. I promise my kids aren’t a bunch of heathens, but they sure have the worst timing to bring up potty talk. I’m still hopeful that I will have a new friend in the neighborhood, but it is clear I have some work to do to teach my kids about proper conversation topics with new people.