Apart from the dreaded birds-and-bees talk, I can think of a few other conversations with my kid that may make me squirm in my seat a little. I'm not one for improv so perhaps being prepared for it now isn't a bad idea. Here's a few I can think of (among the many I will encounter in the future I'm sure):
- Why Barbie is not the feminine ideal. Your boobs are just fine.
- Slavery and the South; immigration laws and Arizona – making sense of things that don’t make sense
- The social hierarchy of high school and playgrounds – why it’s imperative to have good hair
- Scholarships – why you should strive for good grades (because we’re not paying for your college)
- Why the dog is no longer with us – and the bad things you did to make her go away
- Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy and Michael Jackson - same difference
- Why your father and I have different last names - and how it has nothing to do with how much we love each other
- CDs, paperback novels and newspapers – what these are
- Why there are 244,285 pictures of the firstborn and possibly only 230 of the (someday) second
- Yin and Yang is a Chinese philosophy, not a glib reference to your privates
- Sports - what people who don’t live in this house do
- Why the past and present tense of “read” are spelled the same but not pronounced the same way
- Be smart about drinking, as in get drunk only when someone else is buying
- Why tweeting about your sex life is unacceptable - especially if your parents are your followers
- Sarah Palin
Do you have any awkward conversations you’re dreading? Care to add to this list?
