As the parents of four children, my wife and I knew full well that we would, at age-appropriate intervals, need to have some uncomfortable and awkward conversations with the kids.

In addition to general safety concerns, healthy eating, school grades, college and, of course, “the talk,” there would need to be many discussions of personal hygiene and bodily upkeep before they are unleashed into the community among decent people.

I won’t go into those conversations in detail here, such is the personal nature of the subject, but suffice it to say that soap, deodorant, underwear, feet and fingernails will come into play if they haven’t already. For the two girls there will be other discussions, possibly including bar graphs, pie charts, ice cream, lunar calendars and a PowerPoint presentation.

I’ll leave all that up to their mother … (read more)