Embarrassing Comments from Your Kid.

My son (I have no idea why!!!) started shouting, "You can't steal mom" in the middle of Target. I've never had so many people in red shirts ask me if I needed help...in my entire life!!!

My then 2 year old saw a man with prosthetic legs walking at the mall. The kind that don't look like legs but are metal. She pointed and yelled "ROBOT!!!!!!" as loud as possible. I could see something was coming by the look on her face but there was no way to stop it. I thought it was a rather artful comment but I was embarrassed up until the man laughed.

Haha - My son's best - At JC penneys, he scrutinized the lady's name tage and said loudly "Why do you have a girls name when you look SO MUCH like a boy"
Mm hm. Yes he did. And he was about 6 too, old enough to know better.
There was nothing I could do but apologize, and tell my son what he did wrong

I was sick one day (tummy problems) but we had to go to the grocery store so i packed the kids ( then ages 2 and 3) in the car and off we went. Standing in line to check out my stomach turns and i tooted. As if that wasnt embarrasing enough my 3 year old son who was potty training speaks up "mommy you tooted, do you need to poop?". Did he say this quietly, of course not he practically screamed it.

I was in the grocery store check out line when my daughter was 3, and the bagger was an older man who wore an eye patch. (he lost an eye - I had been told this info before). I never had him as a bagger with my daughter in tow before, and she was mesmerized by him and stared at him the entire time he bagged our large list of things. Then as he offered to help me out with the cart, she looked at me and said, "Are you going to let that pirate help us to the car?" And she said it in a kinda scared voice on top of it.

If I could've dug a hole at that moment and crawled in, I would've.

He was too kind and gracious, and said to her, I'm just an old man with a sick eye. I'm not a pirate. Don't be afraid of me.

UGH!

We were at the beach and a woman walked by wearing a string bikini. My son, who was 4 or 5, stood up, pointed at her as she walked by, and yelled "Mama! She's naked! I see her boobies!" about 5 or 6 times, right as she was walking by. I had to explain to him that because her boobies and butt were covered up, that she was NOT naked.
Then she walked by a second time, and he turns around and yells the exact same thing.
I was so embarrassed, and I think string bikini woman was too because she picked up her pace. My husband thought it was hilarious. Me, not so much.

"Mom, that man has boobs!"

Yeaaaaaaaah, that was a great one. And yes, he heard it.

Here's one from my daughter that a schoolmate told her the other day: "I caught my dad with pictures of naked ladies all over the bed once. Also, one day I went into our office and there was a picture of a naked lady on the computer screen." (Wanna know the kicker? Her dad, is our town's MAYOR!!)

We were in line at a store. We get to the check out woman, and my daughter says, "Mom! What is that thing on her face?! There's a hair in it!"

The lady had a pretty large mole on her face which, indeed, had a hair growing out of it.

I just shuddered inwardly and pointed to a magazine, saying something about it, hoping the cashier had not heard!!

Many years ago, I was babysitting and I took the kids to a Wendy's for lunch. The boy (about 5 yrs.) saw an African American man walk by and shouted while pointing, "Look! It's Michael Jackson!!" Ugh... people around us laughed a little uncomfortably and the man was nice enough to smile and chuckle but I was wanted to hide under the table!!

My best one was from when I was babysitting at age 16. The little boy was 2, and his dad had been known to give him sip of beer every now and then, which he apparently liked. I was grocery shopping with the boy for the family at a crowded store and we cut through the beer aisle - the kid started screaming "Beer! Beer! I want Beer!" at the top of his lungs as we walked by the bud light. I was mortified, all these people are looking at me and I just knew they were thinking - wow, teen mom and her toddler's already a drunk. I shouted, he's not my kid, left the cart, and ran out of the store with the sobbing toddler. Lol.

DD had a moment with my MIL. For some reason she wanted to take a shower with Grammy when she was 4. During the shower Grammy turned around and DD hollered "Grammy, your butt is huge". Grammy was not pleased. We had the 'polite words' talk after that one, but I couldn't get too mad because Grammy does kind of have a big tuckus.

I was at the store with my 7y/o son, & we were checking out, the total was $10 even & I paid with a $20 and I asked for her to break down the $10 for me & that I need a $5 bill...the cashier replayed very snootily that she'didnt know if i have change...i might only be sble to give you a $5 & 5 ones or 2 $5's'...to which my son replies 'Wow! What else is there'?

He was right of course but it wasn't nice of him to be so blunt! If the lady hadn't been do snippy when saying it I would have jumped all over my kid...but I let it go!

The man behind me commented on how quick he is...it was hard not laugh at the whole situation!!

My son drew a picture of our family for an end of the year project at school. He drew us all with no clothes on and wrote "We are in the shower!" I WAS MORTIFIED. We have NEVER taken a family shower like that and I have no idea why he did it. I couldn't believe it.

These stories are always great for a laugh. :)

Whenever possible, I try to turn the comment into something flattering. I realize that isn't always possible! For example, when she said, "Hey, you're brown!" I probably would have said, "Isn't her skin a lovely color?" and smiled at the other girl. Then I would go on to say (in front of the other girl) something like, "God makes us all different so that we can all be beautiful in our own ways," and then I would steer the attention to a difference that she and I have like, "See, I have brown eyes and you have hazel eyes," and knowing my daughter (just turned 3), she would proably say, "Oh, and I have ____ and you have _____." I would keep the conversation quick, polite, and to the point. Often times things that do not occur to our children as being potentially offensive are things that our visible embarrassment can actually draw more negative attention to. If you can answer in a way kind of like this, then you're also hopefully letting the other girl know that it is okay that we are all different.

Add in: When my half-sister was pretty little, we were all at some very public location and she was upset, because she wanted "Daddy's Burbon!" She was meaning that she was ready to go home and wanted to go to Daddy's SUBurban. My dad is a HS teacher and if I do recall correctly, this was a school event. Anyone who truly knows my dad knows he's not much of a drinker...I can actually count on one hand the number of times I've seen my dad have any sort of alcoholic beverage..but boy were we getting some looks! LOL!

I love those moments. We had a few when the boys were little. You know, "Mommy, that man only has one leg! Where'd his other one go?!"

There's nothing wrong with the truth. Just smile apologetically to the person, and say to your daughter, right there, "Honey, we don't call nice ladies "old," because it could hurt their feelings, okay?"

As for the "brown" child, I'd just say, "yes, there are lots of different people in the world and we're all different. Even you and I have skin that's just a little bit different. But we're all people."

Embrace the lesson, don't be upset or embarrassed. :-)

My kids have done this as well. My daughter announced to the OB's office that I had pee in my purse!

When she was a teenager, we were at the grocery store and I asked her to get the Splenda for me. She is a bit taller than I am so she could reach it better. She got it, held it over my head and said "jump Mommy, jump"!

I was at school having lunch with my son and his friend said "your mommy is pretty, my son said yeah but she is 17! Apparently that was OLD! =)

Aww, those wonderful bonding moments with our offsprings.

On the bus, Kiddo was newly four and a down-and-out guy was trying to start up a conversation with him in some awkward ways. It was very apparent the fellow had lost several of his teeth, and at one point when the guy was trying to tell Kiddo to go home and take a nap (not necessary), Kiddo got a concerned look on his face and asked "What happened in your mouth?"

Could have heard a pin drop. I did feel embarrassed for the guy, who explained he was 'getting his new teeth next week' and then moved away from us at the next stop. After he got off, we had a gentle conversation about 'what we do when we see people who don't have teeth' or other *different* situations. I explained that people who don't have teeth, or who appear to be very different, aren't usually happy about this, so we don't mention it at the time. AND that if he had questions or saw something he didn't understand, he could ask me when that person was gone. I will say, Kiddo did ask with concern, and I think we forget that kids don't have the inhibitions, filters or sense of shame about some of the things we do. It's my job to help him with a little empathy for that person, and guidance.:)

Once when we were traveling we were standing in line at a McDonald's and my 4 year old daughter blurted out "wow there's a lot of black people in here!"
Of course I was mortified, I just smiled and said, yes, there are. What else could I say, she was just making an observation, and the last thing I wanted to suggest was that she had said anything "bad."
Lucky for me there was an older black woman behind me who gave me a chuckle and a wink, that made me feel better!

We had been reading a kids' book which included circus people ("Julius" I believe) - a fat lady, thin man, tiny people, clowns. My three-year old was walking with me, behind a rather wide woman and she blurted out "mom, she's a fat lady!"

The local ice cream store was giving out free ice cream last week. My husband too my daughter during the day. I wanted to get one so we went back later that night. Of course, my hubby and daughter had to get another. So as we were walking out, my daughter says, "Daddy, you already had the chocolate today, you should have tried a new flavor." We booked on out of there.

What did you say when she said that girl is brown? I would have said loudly "Yes isn't she beautiful? We all have different colors of skin. Some darker, some lighter. Just like some of us have black hair, red hair, etc." That way you could have taught your daughter a bit more about diversity and the girl may have been less offended (if she was offended). Then I would (in private) have explained that even though some people may look different (colors of skin, in wheelchairs, etc) that it's not always nice to say something out loud because it may hurt someone's feelings.

As far as the older lady, I would probably have ignored that or said "She probably has lots of wisdom!" or something and then smiled sheepishly at the woman.

My kids have said something about people in wheelchairs or with canes before and I told them some people need things to help them walk easier.

I've only really gotten slightly emberessed once n it was at my aunt n uncles house and my uncle had just had his leg amputated due to infections and had yet to get his prosthetic so my daughter about 3 1/2 asked what happened to his leg. And we just said he was really sick and for him to get better his leg had to go ( he had staph infections in his knee that wouldn't go away and it would of killed him) my uncle though had no issues with it.

My kid is 2.5. Earlier in the week, I'd poured myself a beer, and he wanted a sip. Saying "apple juice share". I explained that it wasn't apple juice, it was beer, and that beer is for adults. Then to emphasize and diffuse, I explained, "mommy drinks beer, daddy drinks beer, uncle A drinks beer, grandma drinks beer, etc. Does DS drink beer? nooooo, beer is for adults.

Sat down to dinner the other day at my parents, with a glass of water. DS starts having a fit. What's wrong DS? Mommy drinks beer. Mommy mommy drink beer.

Out of the mouth of babes.

When I was really little, I was at the grocery store with my mom.....

A man with a very large, bulbous nose was in line by us. I said (very loudly)...."Mommy, look at that man's BIG nose!"

My mom's response - "I'm sorry sir, my sister's kid."

As for my son, he hasn't really said anything about anyone else that has embarrassed me, but he did one time at Walmart say "Excuse me" really loud and when I said "Huh?" He shouted "I farted and said excuse me."

My daughter recently did that on a girl scout trip. She said something to that affect about the only other Daisy on the trip. I told her "stop that right now. I know you didn't mean it that way but it didn't sound very nice".

I agree w/ Amber C.

Hahahaha, well I have a favorite that my oldest did that sort of goes along the lines of your first story. When my oldest was about 3 and my middle was a baby, we were at the grocery store shopping in the yogurt section. My oldest was in the big part of the cart, and he stood up to see the yogurt, as he did this he got startled by the fact a black man was standing right there, (my kids are white and black), so in this startled moment he shouts out in an accusatory tone, 'Hey! You're not my Daddy!!!' The man bust out laughing and said 'uh, no...I'm not!' I, being the fairest in the group, turned a nice shade of pink! Everyone nearby thoroughly enjoyed it though! What are you gonna do, kids are kids! Oh and also when my oldest was about 3 he got into his cousins lap, she was about 11, and placed his hands directly on her newly forming bosom, one little hand on each breast. Wow! I could have died! I took him immediately and told him that breasts are private and we don't tough girls/ladies there. I apologized to my young cousin and we all moved on!! They played fine the rest of the night. So I guess with kids you just handle each crazy thing they do as it comes up!

I never really had this problem with my Eldest. It's my younger two that have the mouths.

My youngest daughter is pretty literal, and one day when she was in Pre-K, went on and on about how some of her friends are brown, and some are light brown, and some are really dark brown, and....it went on. A black lady overheard and started getting indignant about it with, "They're not brown! They're black! Like me!" And she looks at her and says, "No, you're brown. Your shoes are black, your skirt is black, your shirt is red, and YOU are brown!" The lady pushed, "What color are you then?" "I'm kind of pinkish. I don't know why people say I'm white, I'm definitely pinkish. Why?" Which...shooshed the lady right up.

My son however, is fascinated by wheelchairs. Without fail, he'll run up to someone in one and tell them, "You have a really cool car!" Wave and run off. I don't get it, but he makes people laugh with it.

MY embarrassing stuff is if I have to try something on and he comments (loudly) on my huge chest or droopy pooch tummy or hairy (unshaven) legs - sigh!

Go for the teachable moment instead of embarassment.

The color thing is normal, and no reason to be embarrassed. It's not the noticing of colors, it's the attitude. So be proud that she notices, and just respond with "yes, people are all different colors - and compare yours to hers, etc." I am actually "pinker" than my son, age 6 (we're caucasion). He won't call himself white, because to him, he's NOT white - he asked me the name for the color he is - he says he's Beige (LOL).

Same for age - acknowledge that there is a difference, and compare, talk about what it means, how interesting it is to have lived a long time, what you learn, etc.

My son watched How To Train Your Dragon (SPOILER ALERT) STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS - and noticed this time that Hiccup's leg was damaged and that he had a prosthetic. So I talked to him about how people can have damage to their bodies or minds and that there are things that help them, etc.