Girls Will Be Girls

Boys will be boys and girls will be girls. Not only will they be so, but so they ought to be. Men are supposed to do certain things when they grow up, and parents should by Christ's grace foster those things in their boys. Women are supposed to do other certain things when they grow up, and parents should by Christ's grace foster those things in their girls.

Each sex has tendencies toward certain virtues and vices, some biological, some inculcated.

Little Mara is twenty months old, and she's all girl. She loves her shoes more than any of her other possessions. She ignores the boys' Legos and plays with her sister's necklaces and bracelets. She loves to sit and drink tea with mom, and she was so thrilled today when I let her "whisk" eggs and add salt to our frittata.

Parents of boys and girls usually notice that boys and girls are different right from the beginning. And wifey and I don't mind fostering that. Which is why it's totally cool that every morning little Mara stands in front of the mirror and brushes her hair and checks her eyebrows and gussies herself all over. It's a natural desire...

...that her father taught her. That's right. Dad spends way more time gussying up in the morning than mom. First you have to brush the beard, then oil it, then brush the mustache, and finally brush the hair. And that's on a quick morning. Often there's product in the hair, and then the mustache has to be waxed, which often involves blow drying. Wifey only uses the blow dryer on Sundays, but I'll use it any day. The mustache is important.

And Mara knows that. When she's 83 and has as fine an old woman mustache as has ever been seen, my influence on her early years will be a help to her.

Mara loves to make herself beautiful. More than any Swait, she thinks about her shoes and her dress and her hair and her jewelry. This is a thing that, nurtured in modesty, must delight God and man. And I am happy to have been the one to teach her.