A few weeks back, I was climbing into the van with Katherine, preparatory to our all going somewhere, when she asked me from the back seat, “Daddy, what does SEX mean?”<\/p>\n
It’s one of those defining parental moments — for me an odd admixture of “OMG OMG OMG!” with “Huh, wonder how this subject came up” with “Don’t worry too much, Dave, but do be aware that whatever you answer will likely affect her entire attitude toward sex for the rest of her life” with “Okay, how can I answer this in an honest, thorough, interesting, positive yet cautionary, inclusive, productive fashion, tailored to a six-year-old but in a way that won’t come back to haunt me?”<\/p>\n
I don’t recall precisely what I began to calmly stammer out — something about interpersonal relationships (though I didn’t use that term, obviously), genders, and kissing, I think. I think I also started flitting about, hummingbird-like, regarding in 6-year-old terms things like values and cultural norms and —<\/p>\n
Margie got in the car. “What’s up?”<\/p>\n
“Katherine was wondering what SEX meant?”<\/p>\n
Margie, of course, asked the return question I ought to have. “Why do you ask, pumpkin?”<\/p>\n
“Because it’s written over there.”<\/p>\n
And, yes, sure enough, up on the wall of the garage, some former teen residents of the house had put the word SEX up on the wall with those adhesive letters folks use on mailboxes. “SEX” And Katherine is in a stage where she reads everything<\/em> that’s around her. Because she can<\/em>.<\/p>\n “Oh,” I told Katherine. “That’s just something that some kids put up on the wall.”<\/p>\n “Oh, okay.”<\/p>\n And we drove off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few weeks back, I was climbing into the van with Katherine, preparatory to our all going somewhere, when she asked me from the back seat, “Daddy, what does SEX…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":127572,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/21\/omg-the-fundies-were-right-homosexuality-is-spreading.html","url_meta":{"origin":10320,"position":0},"title":"OMG! The Fundies were right! Homosexuality is SPREADING!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Aug-15 1:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"(Snort.)Assuming the survey results are i the general realm of accuracy, what I think you're seeing here is not the Creeping Spread of Teh Gayz, or Evil Recruitment by Sodomites, or Proof Positive that Homosexuality is a Choice. In a society (especially among younger cohorts) where same-sex attraction isn't subject\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41719,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/14\/omg-redsea-partedtime.html","url_meta":{"origin":10320,"position":1},"title":"#OMG #REDSEA #PARTEDTIME","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Apr-14 4:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"#OMG #REDSEA #PARTEDTIMEYeah, pretty much.Reshared post from +Jeff Zimmerman View this post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/selfie.jpg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":39224,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/17\/omg-jack-skellington-redress.html","url_meta":{"origin":10320,"position":2},"title":"OMG, Jack Skellington redress …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Oct-13 12:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"OMG, Jack Skellington redress of the Haunted Mansion is astoundingly faboo. #Disneyland","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51314,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/31\/omg-leaked-star-wars-vii-soundtrack-cover-spoils-everything.html","url_meta":{"origin":10320,"position":3},"title":"OMG, Leaked Star Wars VII Soundtrack Cover Spoils Everything!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 31-May-15 6:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, now I I really want to see that movie ... Originally shared by +Gary Palmer: Star Wars: The Force Awakens soundtrack.I recently posted this on Twitter and got more grief than you can imagine for allegedly tweeting spoilers. After reading past track 8 you will figure out why the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/2015%2B-%2B1imgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/2015%2B-%2B1imgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/2015%2B-%2B1imgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":129118,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/14\/omg-star-wars-force-awakens-spoiler-script-page-leak-not-really.html","url_meta":{"origin":10320,"position":4},"title":"OMG STAR WARS FORCE AWAKENS SPOILER SCRIPT PAGE LEAK! (Not really.)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Dec-15 5:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"But it would be awesome if it were so. Originally shared by +Asbj\u00f8rn Grandt: The Force Awakens Script page leaked \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/SW7ScriptPage.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/SW7ScriptPage.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/SW7ScriptPage.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":41659,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/10\/omg-they-want-to-shackle-us-and-track-our-guns.html","url_meta":{"origin":10320,"position":5},"title":"OMG THEY WANT TO SHACKLE US AND TRACK OUR GUNS!!!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-Apr-14 1:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Crikey.And as zany as the number\u00a0of the comments here are, the first several dozen of the over 5,000 comments\u00a0at the Yahoo page I originally saw this on (http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/conservatives-furious-eric-holder-them-wear-anti-freedom-130951982.html) are even ... zanier.\ufeff Conservatives Are Furious that Eric Holder Will Make Them Wear Anti-Freedom Jewelry It had been a while since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}