What do you tell kids who ask questions about your scars?
My left arm is heavily scarred from cutting.
Tonight at dinner, my three year old nephew Allen for the second time, "what happened?" pointing to my scars.
He also asked at Thanksgiving dinner. My mom pretty much just answered for me then and told him they were lines and when he asked why again, she just said, "because she likes lines."
I have him the same answer tonight and he looked at me questioning after I told him they were just lines and said, "Pippy (my cat) bite you?"
I told him yes.
I honestly thought about this, that there would come a time time when my sister's kids, maybe even someday my own, would ask about my scars. I thought about that when my oldest nephew was only a few months old and he'll be seven the end of January. I never really figured out the right thing to do about it. When my oldest new first asked, he was three, so I guess I should have seen this coming. At that time my sister answered for me. She told him they were old boo-boos that left marks. And even now that he's nearly seven, he hasn't asked about them again.
I guess it's different with the little ones. Instead of worrying about judgment or rejection, it's more about trying to protect them from the truth. That there was pain there.
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