Chicken What?

This past week I had the pleasure of being one of the chaperons for Beeb's kindergarten class field trip to the library. I was very excited for this adventure as we would be shown the behind closed door, top secret, employee only areas - such as the book drop basket. Did you ever wonder where your book went after you put it into the outdoor basket drop? Well now I know!

Near the end of the tour the children's librarian assembled all the kids into the meeting room for story time before releasing them to find their own book to check out and take home. While she chatted with the kids I took note of the book she was holding in her hands; the same book I had purposely removed from the room when we initially arrived at the library thinking it had been left there by another patron and which I deemed inappropriate for my daughter (and her classmates) to see. So there I found myself dumbfounded at the idea that the head children's librarian would share "Chicken Butt" with these kids. I casually strolled over to Beeb's teacher and asked her, "Is she really going to read Chicken Butt to them?" Looking very uncomfortable, she assured me that indeed this was the case and then we both stood there unsure what to do.



In my mind I had the internal debate over how to proceed. I certainly did not want Beeb to hear this book and I definitely did not want "Chicken Butt" to become a regular term in our house, which I was sure would happen once Mr. B caught wind of it. Finally my moral code won out over social pressure and I called Beeb out of the room much to her dismay. I explained to her that the librarian had chosen a book that had words that were not appropriate and that we don't use in our house. To console her I let her pick out several books to take home, instead of just one, though I could see she was not happy with being pulled out of story time especially when she heard the kids laughing.

When the story was over we reentered the meeting room where the kids were given more instruction about how to select and check out their books. Several times kids could be hear shouting out "Chicken Butt" followed by giggles from their classmates. Beeb looked confused and I stressed that she would still pick up this term and bring it home (luckily she didn't).

A short while later Beeb's teacher approached me (btw she is a very very nice woman) and told me that she spoke with the librarian regarding her book selection. The librarian’s response, "well we all have butts." Hmmm, last I checked she wasn't giving an anatomy lesson. Lucky for me my daughter wasn't a captive audience to her poor selection like the many other kids whose parents weren't there to help make that decision for their own children.

I hope this was one of those memorable teaching moments for Beeb, when her mother had to "choose the right" in a moment that made her uncomfortable. I hope she will draw strength from that little action when it is her turn to do the same.