Two reasons.
First, he is a redhead. I have red hair, his dad has red hair, so that’s just the way these things work. Being a redhead is supposedly great, and some redheaded 12 year old I talked to on a bus a couple of years ago said he’s never been made fun of for his hair color, but honestly it’s not all it’s cracked up to be if you have any personal boundaries.
When you’re a redheaded kid, people feel like they have permission to touch your hair. In grocery stores, mostly. Complete strangers, touching your hair. Gets old.
Second reason he is doomed:
A squirrel bit him in the park.
No, he didn’t contract some strange squirrel virus, and actually our pediatrician said there had never been a case of squirrel to human disease transmission, so that’s all well and good.
But EVERYONE KNOWS.
When my MIL or C-Man introduces him to someone new, they say “Oh, is that the boy who got bitten by the squirrel?”
We may have to move to north Austin so he can have an identity that is not related to a wildlife attack.
[Side note: did you notice I didn’t post yesterday? Yep, I didn’t. So much for NaBloPoMo. You know what’s embarrassing? I didn’t decide to skip a day. I even wrote half this post yesterday. Then I plain forgot about posting. Ah well.]
And now the whole internet knows.
Crap. You are going to have to move to a non-English speaking nation.
North Austin isn’t so bad. If you don’t mind Californians, that is. :)