Different Does Not = Wrong

So I was sitting in McDonalds with my kids one Saturday afternoon.  We decided to get some lunch and went inside to eat.  The kids like to sit next to the window so they can wave to people as they pull away from the drive thru.  Half the time the people are too distracted to notice, but every once in a while someone will look over and wave back.  This usually brings a huge smile to the face of my kids and the drive thru customer as well.  I love it, and think it is a nice thing to do, so I let them.  As we were sitting there, a woman stopped and asked me something about my phone.  I didn’t hear her at first, so I said excuse me.  She then repeated her question.  She had asked what kind of phone it was.  I told her it is a Samsung Galaxy S3.  That is when my daughter turned around to look at the woman.  I knew right away from the expression on her face that what she was about to say was not going to be good.  My daughter said aloud, “What is wrong with your teeth?”  The woman had two teeth in the front of her mouth that stuck out, and one was also slightly crooked.  I tried to keep talking while I was looking at my daughter in that BE QUIET kind of way, but then she said it again even louder, as she was not to be ignored.  The woman stopped talking to me and looked at her and said, “I don’t know.”  Even though she seemed as though the question did not bother her, and her answer did satisfy my daughter, it still made me feel really sad.  I don’t want my kids thinking that just because someone looks different, that something is wrong with them.  I explained this to them.  I told them you can’t tell how a person is just by looking at them.  When someone looks a little different, it is not nice to ask what is wrong with them.  Just because it is different, does not mean it is wrong.  When you say what is wrong with you, it can make a person feel really sad.  No one likes to hear that something is wrong with the way they look, especially when there is nothing they can do about it.  Hopefully this little talk will help to prevent some future embarrassing moments and hurt feelings.  I just wish we would have had this conversation before we saw the guy with the prosthetic leg at the post office.