Her name is Ace, and she just doesn't understand. People think her brother Archie is different. But Archie isn't different to Ace. He's just another little kid.
But to the rest of the world, Archie is a kid who was orphaned in his native Bulgaria because he had down syndrome. He was adopted by an American family, and along with Ace he's star of a video that I -- a jaded old mom blogger who has seen thousands of viral videos over the years -- can't get out of my head. Just watch!
Watching these two adorable siblings this morning on a friend's Facebook page, I couldn't help seeing my 6-year-old on the playground in the back of my mind. I always marvel when I take her out there. I watch her walk up to kids who are perfect strangers. They exchange names, and suddenly, they're friends, ready to take on the world. At this age, kids are just kids. There is no color. No gender. There are no "problems."
And then they go to school. And they meet kids who weren't raised by parents like me (and my husband), parents who don't teach their kids the everyone is equal and everyone deserves respect and everyone has value. Someone tells them different is bad ... and we wonder why we have bullies and wars and division in America?
We wouldn't. Not if kids stayed like Ace. Not if we still walked up to strangers on the playground and said "hey, you are cool, I am cool, let's be friends." Not if everyone believed like Ace does ... that kids like Archie are "just like any other kid." They aren't different. They just are.
What have you told your kids about kids who are "different"?
Image via eicherumba/YouTube
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Comments 28
I wish kids could stay like Ace and just accept people for who they are. This goes for adults as well. There's nothing wrong with being different! I'm so glad my daughter goes to a Catholic school where what I'm teaching her about people being differently abled is reinforced. Some of the children in her school have disabilities - one is visually impared and a boy in her class has to wear hearing aids. My daughter is the only little girl in her 1st grade class that has to wear bifocals. While I don't necessarily think that Catholics are better than people of other religions or atheist, I do like that my teachings are being reinforced and that I haven't found any bullies at all in this school, however, if she were to attend one of the local public schools, I can guarentee that my daughter would be bullied for wearing bifocals and also because I have a mild case of Cerebral Palsy. One of my best friends growing up had Down Syndrome, my best friend in high school was wheelchair bound thanks to a more severe case of Cerebral Palsy than I have, my ex husband, my daughter's father, has paranoid schizophrenia and her paternal grandmother has bipolar disorder so my daughter has been around differently abled people her whole life. I choose to use "differently abled" instead of "disabled" because I believe that for the most part, we can all do the same things, just in different ways.
The first part of the video is really cute, but the scond part had me in tears. What a wonderful family!
too cute.. I hope this is friendship for life
i have to say that though i understand what they were trying to do, this felt rehearsed and unnatural. Everyone is different so i think that its about teaching how to understand differences not about pointing out one kind over another.
I honestly think this is a way to get the point across that 'differant' isn't neccesarily 'bad'...I'm just glad that little girl loves her brother today, right now...