Are You My Mother?

Almost every week LB and I go to Toddler Story Time at the library. He loves it. The librarian that usually leads it is a celebrity at our house. LB and I were in the kids area at the library the other day and that particular librarian started walking towards us and LB pointed and gasped. It was pretty hilarious. There was a time frame when LB was 15 months - 22 months in age and story time was often a bit of a struggle. I wondered why I brought him when all he wanted to do was play with the door handles (perhaps he wanted to escape) and grab stuff off the librarian's table. There was the time he started the music before I could catch him and then I couldn't figure out how to turn it off. That was embarrassing. But now that he is a bit older he really gets into it and will listen to the books and loves the interactive singing. He will almost always behave if he knows he will get a stamp and a sticker at the end. The librarian is popular with the kids for good reason. He does a great job of mixing up songs, books and storytelling with the felt board.

The librarian usually has a theme for each week. Last week it was cats and the week before that it was the alphabet. Several weeks ago it was the "Are You My Mother" theme. Are you familiar with the book? I used to think it was really cute. Basically, there is a little bird that can't find his mother. He goes up to all sorts of other animals like a dog and a cow, who clearly don't look like him, and asks, "Are you my mother?" Finally, the little bird finds the mama bird and all is well. For most of the story time the librarian talked about different animals and read books about animals, which is understandably a crowd favorite. However, at one point the librarian put a little baby alligator up on the felt board and told the kids that the baby alligator was looking for his mother. Then he put an elephant on the board and asked if that was his mother and then a lion and so on and so on. Finally, he put a bigger alligator on the felt board and asked the kids if the baby found his mother. To make his point that the baby alligator had achieved success he said, "This must be his mother because they are both green." That was when I really cringed and honestly felt very sad. Perhaps I was being oversensitive. LB wasn't really paying attention at that point and if he were I am not sure he would have understood. But he does know that he is brown and I am white. He has gotten quite good at identifying his colors. I suppose the whole theme just felt a little outdated. I started to think about friends that are in interracial relationships and have biological children that aren't the exact same color as them or families with two dads. I do know that we are different and our story is not always going to fit the mold and I am okay with that. But I couldn't help feeling sad for LB that even in the places you don't expect it your differences will be pointed out to you. As the story time went on, I worked up the courage to say something. My plan was to be polite, appreciative and just try to suggest that it was outdated. But by the time the librarian was done passing out stickers, LB had bolted out of the room and was running loose through the computer lab. I have since lost my courage. What do you think? Should I say something or let it go?