This was my *light* reading during our mini vacation last weekend.
The article was good. It had some points that were iffy- meaning Billy and I thought they were trying to put a race issue on kids that is actually their normal competitive spirits, but other parts of the article were great. It says that studies have shown kids as young as 6 months old judge others based on skin color. The University of Texas in Austin did a big study where they wanted to see if showing race conscience videos to kids and talking to them about race would change their views on those different from them. The most shocking part to me was that of the 100 families (all caucasian) that were recruited to participate in the study, dozens of families dropped out when they were asked to have conversations about race to their child. They actually said they did not want to point out other races because they were wanting their child to grow up "color blind". The fact is, this is impossible. "Children see racial differences as much as they see the difference between pink and blue", the article states. The article pointed out than many caucasian families will not discuss race or racial attitudes with their children whereas families from other racial groups do because they must.
The article also says that "researches have found that the more diverse the environment, the more kids self-segreagate by race and ethnicity." This is interesting because many of us believe that if we expose our child to a diverse community, they will not have biases and negative feelings towards people groups based on their race. The article's main point to make was that the best way to raise a child who is nuetral in the way they view different ethnicities is to talk about race at an early age (3 according to the article.) It made the point of stating that children who grew up learning about the ways that other people groups have been suppressed and mistreated, gained a greater sense of compassion than for those children who grew up unaware.
All around this was a very interesting article, one I recommend reading for sure. It is important for us to note that talking about race should not be a conversation we shy away from in an effort to appear non-racist. Racial conversations allow our children to know they can talk to us about anything and we won't be embarrassed or upset to have these discussions.
BEFORE
AFTER
This was my *light* reading during our mini vacation last weekend. 
We had a great time in Galveston for Billy's birthday. As is typical, I took so many pictures it has taken several posts to piece this trip together! The weather was iffy...rain half the time, beautiful skies the last 24 hours. But it worked out for us. The last morning when we went to the beach, it was gorgeous. We were the only ones for miles. The water was a great temp. and the under tow was barely there so the kids had lots of freedom to run and splash. The house was as beautiful as the photos showed. And the beach club we had access to looked like a tropical resort. It was all so amazing. It was a very comfortable and relaxing weekend with Billy's family. Thank you to everyone that helped to make it special!! Enjoy the photos!
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