General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'M THE 14-YEAR-OLD WHO WROTE THE "JESUS ISN'T A DICK SO KEEP HIM OUT OF MY VAGINA" SIGN IN TEXAS AN [View all]calimary
(81,261 posts)her father goaded her on or put words in her mouth, at least from my reading of it. Sounds like she's not the type of young woman who would allow someone else, especially a male someone else, to put words in her mouth. I applaud that. But it does suggest that she's grown up in a household where all things are open for discussion, even the coarser ones. I raised my own kids that way. NO subject was off limits. All those things one is told not to discuss in polite company - religion, sex, and politics - we talked about them all. MANY times. Kicked those ideas around all the time. At home, in the car, everywhere and anywhere. Like they say on NPR - "All Things Considered"!
It was an interesting exercise for me, and a seriously challenging on. They were both in Catholic school. I'm a lapsed Catholic. They had questions about all the provocative subjects, especially the ones in which real world stuff didn't quite square with what they were being taught - or what they knew some of the parents of their friends and fellow students felt about things. Some of their friends came from very conservative homes - either wealthy GOP supporters or devout religious believers, or both. During the bush/cheney years, when so many of their friends came from staunch bush supporters, it was REALLY challenging. Because I was pretty active in the local anti-war movement and took them both to rallies with me when they could come. And I suddenly discovered that it fell to me to try to explain stuff in as objective and even-handed a way as I could, attempting to avoid condemnation or slanted coverage - even slanted toward the broad-minded, feminist, pro-choice, pro-peace, etc.
They've grown up with broad minds of their own, and I'm VERY gratified, whether I had anything to do with that or not. Btw - some of those friends and classmates from conservative families wound up rebelling, dating outside their social class (gasp!) or race (OH! GOD! THE HORRORS!!!!!!), getting involved with all kinds of mixed-up stuff, leaving home, and cutting ties. A couple of 'em even OD'd. A few of them have NO relationships with their parents whatsoever. More still don't have any kind of relationship in which they feel they could talk to their parents openly and honestly, or ask about stuff that was really on their minds. Sometimes, later on, one or two of them would mention to me during carpool that they liked listening to what we talked about, and that they hadn't heard stuff like that, or considered it, before. I'm just grateful both my kids still want to speak to me and have me in their lives, now that they're grown up. You learn that they're far smarter and more observant than you ever expected. I think my daughter was nine or ten when she turned to me at one point and said "I like our talks!" That was one of the coolest things she's ever said to me!
And one more thing. I believe in keeping it to cream pies. Besides, baseball bats and so on aren't my thing. Desserts are my thing!