Yesterday my husband, in a good mood, came into the kitchen, swooped me backwards, and gave me a passionate kiss. When we had finished, I noticed my 13 year old adopted daughter standing there, mouth gaping open, eyes wide, with a shocked look on her face. “What was THAT????’ she asked (in American Sign Language.) “A kiss,” I told her. “No, no”, she signed, “a kiss is a little peck on the lips” she said as she came over and demonstrated one on the dog. “That is the way you kiss when you really love someone, your husband” I said. “WOW! How did you LEARN that? Can you show ME!?!?!” she signed. “You don’t learn it, you just feel it. It is natural when you love someone,” I explained to her. “I’m going to wait until I’m 17 to do that,” she signed back, and I said a silent prayer to myself that I should be so lucky for her to wait that long! I laughed inwardly at her innocence, this worldly child who knew the mechanics of sex more than anyone her age should have to know, (the reason of which is a discussion better delegated to a more serious blog entry.) But I doubt she ever saw anyone in love before, and she definitely had never seen anyone kiss passionately, which really surprised me. The more I thought about it, though, I realized she hadn’t been exposed to it in her young life and the only other way she might know would be from watching television. Because of her deafness, she has a low reading level and is not able to understand the captioning enough to get interested in a romantic story or one of the more mature television shows which are all over the television today. Her favorite tv station is the Animal Planet where great stories are told and no captioning is needed. She knows all about the life cycles of animals, insects and reptiles, including their different mating rituals, but, as preparation for real life, I’m sure she never saw alligators kiss like that!
I Don’t Think Alligators Kiss
March 20, 2011
Category:
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Raising 5 Kids With Disabilities and Remaining Sane Blog 
Comments on: "I Don’t Think Alligators Kiss" (19)
funny,
love is cool,
when your husband love u
in front of 13 daughter,
your daughter is smart,
she will be loved
and love
in beautiful ways…
Happy Valentine’s Day!
What an awesome story! it put a big smile on my face.
As always, I love your posts
http://leonsmom.wordpress.com
You do have a way with writing such beautiful moments ahared! Thank you! 🙂
You honestly should write a book one day. You have an incredibly poignant and down-to-earth way of writing! I love this story. Nowadays kids and teens know so much about sex, but a lot of times there aren’t a lot of examples of what true love is. I think it’s wonderful that you can be an example of that to your daughter.
I love reading your blogs! You really should write a book.
I actually have written a book based on my blog but, unfortunately, the book agents I sent it to have not expressed any interest in it!
i’ve been snooping around!! i actually do a little sign language interpretation for church (at our old church). signing is a small passion of mine… wanting to get back into it. your blog is great!! you have awesome content and readers (and comments) galore. guess it doesn’t really matter how great the blog looks if no one reads!! look forward to coming back!!
How sweet of her to offer to wait until she is 17 to try a nice passionate kiss. Lovely mom and daughter moment you shared with us and how nice that she feels comfortable to talk so openly with you.
When I was in high school, I met some deaf boys one summer. I learned that they are more naive than kids who have their hearing. At the time, I thought it is too bad that everyone else loses their innocence much too young.
such innocence. what a beautiful story. heart-warming to read. you’re setting a lovely example for her to follow… and thanks for your visit.
Good for her! She should stick with the Animal Channel. There’s not a whole lot else for kids on TV. 😉 Thanks for the visit!
I think you are an amazing woman, to share so much of your heart with others is inspiring…
I agree with Shadow’s comment–innocence that is admirable. Nice post.
What a darling story! You have a way of telling stories that mean so many things on so many levels. Thank you for sharing.
I agree with Jingle. All of your kids are lucky to be able to learn from the way you and your husband love each other.
Thanks for sharing such a nice story. I’m happy for you that there is so much love in your family!
What a great story and how luck you are to share such a kiss:)
My three grandchildren are bi-racial, their father is African American. I have many times seen them color family pictures where they depict themselves as light skinned like my daughter with my son in law being the only brown face in the bunch. I think it’s just children being children. I really believe it’s how they see themselves, and maybe it has a bit to do with their fathers family living in another state.
Awwww, good for her. Appreciate the post and thank you for your visits to my blog. Blessings.