Occasionally Snarky and Meta

I'm simply boggled by the idea that we have to present kids with a world of perfect, flawless, normative people because to confront them with anything else would scar them. What if your next-door neighbor came back from Iraq without his left lower leg? What if Grandma's diabetes meant that she went blind? What if the family dog got hit by a car and had to drag his hind quarters around on a little wheeled platform? Would these parents ask the neighbor to move out of their house, stop letting Grandma visit and send the dog to a shelter? Isn't all of that MORE likely to scar the kid, plus producing the expectation that he/she has to remain utterly ordinary and completely perfect to be permitted in his/her parents' lives? God, some people are just too stupid to be believed.