Note to self:

I was sitting in the third and fourth grade classroom today grading papers in the back during science. The home room teacher was talking about blood pressure and heart rate when a boy said, "My sister has a very high blood pressure... (pause) I think the doctor said she was... obese?" Then another girl said, "Oh, my mom is on a healthy food diet because she is fat and wants to be skinny. She says that it will make my daddy happy." As the subject continued to expand to the effects of nicotine on the heart another girl mentioned, "Oh, I know what nicotine is... it's in cigarettes. My dad has to smoke because it makes him calm." Another boy said, "Isn't nicotine in tattoos? Because my mom has a tattoo on her butt. Is that unhealthy?" I tried to remember if I had ever said embarrassing things like these, about my parents when I was in the third and fourth grade. I had no recollection but I now know that in the future I will limit the topics of conversation with my own children at the dinner table.