So, the nieces, they think mom/dad/aunt is the normal set-up.

[conuly]

Jenn has come across them discussing which one will have the kids and which one will be home! More recently, they seem to have decided they can BOTH have kids if they schedule their work neatly so they have equal days off during the week.

This, naturally, led to squabbles about how to divide seven days fairly between two children. Finally I stepped in and asked why they couldn't have, say, the respective dads watch the kids.

Ana: Dad? You mean, a boy? I'm not getting married. Ew! Gross! BOYS.
Eva: Wait. Could YOU do it? Could YOU watch the kids?
Me: Oh, yeah, sure, I guess *I* don't ever need to have fun and, y'know, a life. Or gainful employment of any sort....
Them: Yay!

It takes so little to make them happy.

Anyway, that dinnertime conversation somehow segued into talking about sex (it was the boys angle) and the girls were baffled that anybody would use birth control (such as condoms, it's never too early to indoctrinate children that using condoms is a GOOD IDEA) because, after all, why would ANYBODY want to have sex if they didn't want children? Go through all that? With a boy? For no good reason? Ew!

I declined to comment.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

When I was a child I figured I would enjoy sex when I was older, because apparently adults did. But it was difficult for me to view sex as anything other than the thing necessary to get kids if you want kids. So, I do get where they are coming from.

[conuly]

Oh, absolutely.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

When my daughter was in grade school, we talked quite a bit about the mating-urge, and how, when one's body reaches that point, it changes the way one thinks and feels about many things. She had seen how it is with breeding animals, so it didn't seem strange to her that our bodies work in similar ways. It turned out to be quite helpful to her, to have had a heads-up about the mental and emotional effects of puberty before those effects started happening.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

If ever I have children, you have officially become the person I will consult for child rearing advice.

[conuly]

Meh, mostly it's just common sense. You don't see the posts I don't make when everything goes wrong and I just want them to STOP. ACTING. LIKE. CHILDREN.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

Well its not surprising that they would think you'd watch their kids for them, considering how much of a hand you have had in their raising. It only seems natural to them.