Raising My Rainbow by Lori Duron

Author:Lori Duron [Duron, Lori]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7704-3771-8
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2013-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

IT WAS THE FIRST TIME my two boys would be attending the same school. Understandably, Chase was a little nervous about what C.J. would do to his social status. He was in third grade, after all, king of the lower-graders and big man on the small playground. If you walk onto campus with a brother wearing Tinker Bell boots and carrying a Disney Princess backpack, suddenly you aren’t as cool as you once thought. We had to modify C.J.’s wardrobe a little for school that year.

If C.J. had been going to his own school with only three- and four-year-olds, he might have been a little freer to be, well, C.J. But this school year he walked onto a campus with more than a thousand kids aged four and a half all the way to worldly twelve-year-olds who shave, stalk people on Facebook, and make out near the drop-off zone using an excessive amount of tongue.

Three- and four-year-olds aren’t exactly wise enough to know that C.J. is different. Tweens are, and they’ll point out C.J.’s difference to him, to his brother, and to one another. So C.J. couldn’t have the Disney Princess backpack he wanted and he couldn’t wear his Tinker Bell boots to school. His backpack from last year was in fine shape, and he’d use it until he really needed a new one. He couldn’t wear Tinker Bell boots to school because they weren’t safe for the playground. Excuses and practicalities like those were often put into play when we didn’t want to come right out and say, “We aren’t comfortable with your wearing girl stuff to school. We are deathly afraid that you and your brother are going to be made fun of, to an extent that not only dulls your sparkle but ruins your life forever.”

The use of excuses and practicalities was in full effect when we were back-to-school shopping. Now, having worn underwear for more than three decades, I fancy myself an expert on the subject. Yes, I know a thing or two about wearing underwear. And one thing is for sure: get caught wearing underwear intended for the opposite sex, and you’re going to get a few double takes, and then some.

C.J. wanted Disney Princess bikini briefs, the pack with a different princess for each day of the week.

I consulted a few of my friends. I talked to my brother. The consensus was, don’t get C.J. the princess underwear. That’s also what my gut told me when we were talking late one night, especially because C.J. wanted to have the fabulous underwear to wear to his new school, with his new teacher and new kids.

What does it matter if he wears Disney Princess underwear? Nobody may see them. But what if they did?

In our family, we don’t typically say that things are “for boys” or “for girls.” At our house, Barbies aren’t just for girls and Hot Wheels aren’t just for boys. But I did it; I chose my words carefully and told C.J. that “they don’t make Disney Princess underwear for boys.

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