FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for August 24, 2023

Yes, for once I am right there with Paige’s mum.

And that’s what separates the adults from the kids. Adults will deal with the situation despite how uncomfortable the situation. Kids will ignore or hide from it.

She’ll have twins!

I told my son, who has three daughters to remember what he thought about girls when he was their age.

I warned him when my daughter-in-law was pregnant with the youngest, “Big mistake. They’ll now outnumber you.”

Even as young girls, it was obvious that they were going to grow up to be beauties. So I suggested he build a moat around the house.

Now they are teens. I’m now suggesting barbed wire, a mine field and towers with overlapping fields of fire.

As the old adage goes: if you have a little boy, you have to keep your eyes on a little boy. If you have a little girl, you have to keep your eyes on every little boy on the block.

Yeah, I know, by today’s standards, that’s sexist. Girls can be every bit as naughty as boys. The “sugar and spice” recipe got lost decades ago.

I have two sons but grew up with three sisters so had a little perspective. There were basic rules when it came to girls, of course, but the most important thing I tried to get across was that they were dealing another human being, and every human being has feelings, thoughts worthy of consideration, and the right to be treated respectfully. I taught them to honor those things and expect no less from the people they dated.

When I was in Jr High (back in toe late 60s) our church (Methodist) had a program that used the book Fit to be Tied that dealt with human sexuality and the “birds and bees talk.” It was actually a good program and saved some parents from having the discussion.

We went straight from “Back to the birds and the bees?” “If you don’t mind” to “All done” “Thank goodness.” This entire arc has built and built to something that apparently happened offstage. That’s some great storytelling there, isn’t it?

Many of the girls in my high school, back in the late 70s, were more aggressive than the boys when it came to backseat Olympics.

Moms don’t have to have those talks anymore, smart phones can answer any questions kids might have

I think parents do a great disservice to their kids to have (whether trying intentionally or by chance) all boys or all girls. I believe that a child from a mixed family will grow up with a much better understanding of (and perhaps respect for) the opposite sex. I don’t mean sexuality, but rather the general psychological differences between the two, and that the “other side” won’t be so mysterious and unknown. My mother didn’t like girls and did whatever she could to ensure her kids were boys. I think if I’d had a sister, I’d have grown up with a somewhat better understanding of females, or at least understood better what I didn’t understand (“known unknowns?”).

You say that now Paige, but juuuust wait.