give it to me straight

2 days a week i work with kids who have speech-language (communication) disorders at a middle school. while there are several students who are severely cognitively delayed and can be counted on to say/do socially inappropriate things, the majority of the students (those that i see and those who are just your typical middle school students passing by in the hallways), are fully capable of (or at least i thought) of knowing when, where, and to whom things should be said. having said that, i have had some interesting conversations and comments made to me during my pregnancy by some of these delightful students and thought they were worth sharing. (all grammatical and semantic errors were left as is to get the true flava (flavor) of the conversation).

1. student #1: "you got youself a baby in there?"

2. student #2: "ain't you getting excited?"

me: "for what?"

student: "pretty soon you be gettin' a check every month."

me: "a check for what?

student: "you know, a check from the baby daddy. my mom gets 5 different checks each month." (child support checks)

3. student to another student: "there goes that baby mama."

4. student #3: "do you know who is the baby's daddy?"

5. student #4: "dang mrs. ballard! you just keep gettin' bigger every week!"

me, giving my belly an affectionate, maternal rub: "i know, my belly is really stickin' out, huh?"

student: "not cho' belly, your legs!"

me: "(student's name), do you tell a woman that her legs look big?"

student: "i tell my mama."

me: "well i'm not your mama so next time, don't tell me."

6. at the elementary school i work at, i had a random little kindergartner come up to me, rub my belly then give it a little kiss. it sounds strange but it was actually the cutest thing ever.

as to the comment "do you know who is the baby's daddy?" yes, i do know who he is despite his unintentional absence from recent posts...

the baby's daddy