My son has figured this out at the ripe age of 5. His big epiphany came last night when I told him he needed to stop clomping around our bedroom in my favorite shoes.

G: Why can’t I wear these (red, shiny, stiletto) high heels?

Me: Because you are a boy and boys don’t wear high heels.

G: Well, that’s not fair.

Me: Nope. It’s not.

And then he was quiet for a moment. Finally he said,

G: Well, I guess some people get more than others.

That only took me 37 years to figure out.

And it didn’t make him mad or sad or anything. He just said it in a matter-of-fact way, calmly took off the shoes, and went to play in his room with legos. But before he left the room I called out to him,

Me: Don’t worry. Although women get to wear high heels, you’ll get better jobs and get paid more when you are older.

His response:

G: I’d rather wear high heels.

Right.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 21st, 2010 at 11:33 am and is filed under Weekly Thought. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.