It's All Relative(s)

A woman parks her car and begins to unload the occupants while passersby observe the procedure. The 14 year-old boy exits the front passenger seat and holds the rear door open on the sedan to allow the 5 year-old girl to exit. The woman opens the other back door to help the 7 year-old girl to do the same. She then watches to make sure the young girl makes her way safely to the boy, who is standing on the sidewalk by this time. The woman then removes the car seat containing the 3 month-old baby from the middle of the back seat and makes her own way to the sidewalk after retrieving the diaper bag.

Finally, one spectator comments. "That's a beautiful family you have there," he says.

"Thank you," the woman replies.

"How old is your son?" he asks.

"He's 14," she states.

"No, I mean the baby in the carrier," he says.

"He's not my son," she replies. "He's my grandson. And he's 3 months old."

"Oh!" the man says in a perplexed way. "I thought . . ." Then turning to the 7 year-old girl he says, "I bet you like your little brother a lot, don't you?"

The little girl politely replies, "He's not my little brother. He's my cousin."

"And who is this then?" the man asks, pointing at the teenaged boy standing next to her.

"He's my uncle," the girl says.

Now the man is really confused. He looks at the youngest girl standing there. "And how are you related?" he asks.

"She's my sister," the little one replies as she points to the bigger girl.

"As I said earlier, you have a beautiful family, ma'am!" he states with a smile as he continues on his journey down the sidewalk.

I think I'll start carrying genealogy charts with me on the days the Bear, Polly, Tigger, Fen, and I go to taekwondo and/or run other errands besides. We once held up the line at the post office for several minutes when one of the postal employees was just trying to make polite conversation. :)