The Funky Head Mystery is Solved!

Carter came home the other day from preschool and announced to Sarah that one of the kids at the school had "a funky lookin' head."

Sarah said gently, "Well Carter, that's not such a nice thing to say about someone. What do you mean, does his head have a strange shape?"

"Well, it's just really funky!"

"Ok, Carter, well please don't say that to him because we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings."

He agreed but then, earlier today while I was at work, Sarah took Carter, Claire, Ryan (our nephew) and a little girl Sarah was watching to give her mommy a break, to the Moreno Valley Mall to play in the kids area because it was too windy to go to the park. Right before leaving, Carter pointed to a cute little girl and, in front of the girl's mother, announced loudly and clearly, "Hey look, that little girl's got a funky lookin' head!"

"Carter! We don't say that to people. Besides, she is a very pretty little girl." She smiled at the woman who didn't seem to mind the outburst. Who knows what she was thinking. The little girl, Sarah told me, was honestly quite cute, which made the situation a bit less awkward. I can only imagine if she had hydrocephalus or something and the woman had burst into tears.

A few minutes later Sarah asked, "Why did you think she has a 'funky' head?"

"Well, it's like an oval!"

The mystery was solved. Carter has been referring to face shape and, specifically, to people with oblong shaped faces. In my opinion, he's likely reached the age in which he is paying closer attention to others, including their physical appearance and, as we all do, is beginning to attach meaning and judgments to physical features.

When asked what kind of head Carter has he stated flatly that he has an oval head too because of his chin and head. Later, in the evening, we talked about different shaped heads and bodies and explained that we should try to avoid certain words when describing others. Sarah even found a little article in the friend that dealt with the issue which we used to supplement our Family Home Evening lesson.

This was also a great time to reiterate that we avoid using the term "fat" in public, even when it is an accurate term to describe people. Carter has often pointed to people and exclaimed, "Look at that really fat guy!" He's also interrupted Sarah and pointed to a friend or acquaintance and asked innocently, "Why are you kinda fat?" This is to be expected and only the truly ignorant person, or he or she who lives in total denial, ever gets upset. Indeed, the brutal honesty of children is often a great way to snap out of our delusions and realize that our vertically striped shirt or black blouse ain't hiding the truth. Carter's pointed out my gut on a number of occassions as well as his grandpas' bellys and we always just laugh and say, "Yep, I eat too much sometimes."

In fact, in Italy people don't hold back like we Americans do when it comes to pointing out weight gain. I watched on numerous ocassions when a member would say to a new missionary, sometimes a sister missionary, "Hey, you obviusly like to eat! We can tell!" The look on the victim's face often illicited both pity and humor as they tried in vain to come up with a response.

So, if Carter says you have a "funky lookin' head," consider it a compliment that you have a nicely shaped, probably "oval," head/face shape.

What face shape do you and your significant other or children have?

I think Sarah has a heart shaped face due to her high cheek bones and I probably have a square/round (depends on how much extra there is to love). As we reviewed this illustration, we realize that there are obviously degrees to which one falls into a particular category so it's hard to say, "Oh yeah dude, I'm totally like a chiseled rectangle and you, me lady, are a Romanesque Triangular goddess!" <--that was supposed to be in a ridiculous surfer "brah" voice.

Click to enlarge the images:

Try to think of yourself as a cartoon (which is probably more the way children view people):