"What´s wrong with that boy? Why is he so strange?!"

Last week was a very big one for A. My oldest son started school.

He is 5 and a half and in Sweden we have a prep-school thing called "six years" that works like a transession between kindergarten and school. But this means that he has moved from his kindergarten to the large building where the school is. So he is a big boy now.

This also means that we have to leave and pick up the kids at two different locations.

And one day something happend.

My wife were saying goodbye to A. V was looking at all the kids. And one of them looked straight back. And he spoke right out.

Now. Things like this will happen. That´s clear. And it will happen a lot of times. But this was the first time for us. At least so clearly and in front of so many.

So how to react?

My wife did the very best you could do. At least that´s my opinion.

 

She turned directly to the kid. Instantly. And told him everything.

The kid had his mother with him. So she heard too. She heard my wife being totally open about V and his disease. In front of lots of kids. Making absolutely no drama about it at all.

And the mother reacted as good as you could ever imagine.

When she heard about V and his disability to talk but his ability to do sign language - she said "Oh really?! Do you sign V?" And then she started to do signs. She "said":
HI V! REALLY FUN THAT YOU COULD DO SIGNS!

Could that episode have gone much better?

And all because of my wife. She decided not to hide, not to pretend that she didn´t hear. She was all open about everything. And got the reward. Another person who could talk to V with signs.

So now we know. It is out there. Everyone can see that V is different. A lot of our friends do tell us otherwise. That he looks so perfectly normal. But they are used to him. And they are being nice.

Kids say the darnest things, don´t they?