Bad (Pink) Mom Moment Du Jour

Had one of those days where I was running flat out from 7AM onward, between last minute logistics for the big community event that we are putting on tomorrow and all the usual juggling relating to having three kids with activities and only one of me with one car.  I wasn't actually late to anything, but it was very close on several different occasions and I hate that.  It's a pet peeve of mine.  By the end of The Girl's taekwondo class this evening (in which she kicked butt, I do have to say) all I wanted to do was make the necessary quick run to the grocery store and go home.

We were in our final aisle when The Girl looked up and noticed a preteen boy wearing what looked like pink soccer socks with the breast cancer ribbon logo on them.  It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, after all...no big deal.  Except to The Girl, of course, who had to ask me (in a voice loud enough to carry to the boy and his mother and the rest of the aisle, because Murphy's Law is my everloving shadow) why that boy was wearing pink socks because pink is usually for girls.  And the mother, who apparently had had the same kind of day as I, looked at me and said snippily, "Well, why aren't you explaining it to her?"

OK.  Let's start with the fact that she is young enough that she doesn't really understand what cancer is, breast or otherwise, and has no idea that a pink ribbon or the color pink in general are associated with this particular disease.  This being the case, I was having a hard time finding the correct words for an age-appropriate and quick explanation for the socks in a crowded supermarket aisle, hence the momentary hesitation.  Oh well.

Ironically, my doctoral thesis research was breast cancer-related.  I know so much about this miserable disease that words fail me when I need to explain it to a child.