Kids and Ethnicity

Mason has been really into eating with chopsticks, because his Uncle Colin lives in Japan. I have explained to Mason that we are part Japanese. I am certain that he doesn't understand what this means, as it took me until the third grade to realize that not everyone has a Japanese Dad.

We were eating lunch at Noodles Express and of course Mason wanted chopsticks. He asked if we could take a pair home and take it to Hawaii to use at Uncle Colin's wedding. I told him that we certainly could take a pair home, but they would probably have plenty of chopsticks in Hawaii. I told he that he was getting very skilled with his chopsticks and that his Uncle would be very proud. His Aunt then said, you know you are part Japanese. Mason quickly said, "No, I am not. I am Spanish." Then he started counting to ten in Spanish. After he was done, he says. "See, I am Spanish."

This reminded me of a time a couple of years ago when he was just getting into writing. He would take paper and make books and fill them with squiggles. After that he would bring the books to me and ask me to read them. Most of the time I would just make up stories and he seemed happy about that. One day as I started to read one of his "stories", he interrupted and told me that what I was reading wasn't right. He sighed and said, "Oh, you can't read that because its in Spanish."