First of all, amen. I’ve always thought that.

I was so thoroughly bewildered in high school. Mostly because of the girls, I think. Remember how terrible girls are? Boys, I mean, learn to belch the alphabet in one go and you’re home free. I never understood how social situations worked, and still don’t. No one ever explained it to me, maybe they didn’t know either.

With my own kids I try to help them avoid this by putting them in as wide a variety of social situations as possible, where they can learn on their own and by providing as much honest information as I can. When I was a kid I lived at the end of a dirt road with a shy father who was gone a lot (bus driver) and a mother who on the one hand would’ve liked to get out more and on the other disdained society. So in my attempts to give my kids a broader education than I had, I try to expose them to team sports, music lessons (including ensembles) and so on, where they deal with other kids and so on. Because a lot of it is simply practice.

The other thing is providing non-bullshit information. The bullshit level in public information has always been high, especially the information provided to kids. Which is sad because they are the people who need good information the most as they try to figure things out. So I try to give the girls value-free information.

Well, that’s not true. I make a strong effort to indoctrinate them with my own value system, I’ll admit that. But I also have to say that it seems to me that they were born pretty fully-formed already and the best I can do is help them, it seems. Hold the bike while they climb on and ride off. I don’t tell them not to have sex, I try to make them not afraid of sex, not afraid to talk about it, not afraid of penises; having information about sex, I think, makes them less likely to run out and get exploited, not more. Less likely to be afraid to buy a condom or whatever. So much is so embarrassing for a kid, simply because they don’t know. Etc etc.

Ignorance is the root of all evil, I think. Kids are smart enough to figure stuff out anyway, and they usually realize fast if you’re snowing them. Want your kids to be disciplined? Be disciplined yourself. They learn most by example. They don’t need to be told what to do, they need to be told how things work. They need to be listened to.

I seem to be rambling. Well, it’s my blog, if you don’t like it go do a google image search for “booty necklaces” or something. Where was I? Listened to. I admit that I fail in this a lot. “Yes, honey,” I say a lot and later can’t remember what I was being told.

Kids are so different too. Beta and Gamma are so different from each other. So different. What you learn raising one has only limited application to the other.

Man it’s hot today. 35 degrees Centigrade, what is that in Fahrenheit?