Complementarianism Through the Eyes of a Six-Year-Old

My three-year-old was just chattering on about how she wants to have "TWO BABIES" (holds up two fingers for emphasis), "because that will be easy to feed", then adds, "AFTER I get married. That's what I'm gonna do." Good, I tell her; that sounds like great fun and I'll come over and babysit.

At this point, my six-year-old son comes over to me with a very serious expression and thoughtful look in his deep, brown eyes.

"Mommy, is it the boy's job to chase the girl, or the girl's job to chase the boy?" (Did he overhear something I said to the twelve year old? Ya think? )

Bearing in mind that kindergarteners think very literally, (and can get suspended for physically tackling one another on the playground), I clarified: "Well, actually, no one really CHASES anybody or grabs them. But if the boy's job to...well, say he's a young man, and he likes her, he could ask her out to dinner or something."

Stefan's eyes lit up and he grinned sheepishly. Looking at the floor, he says, "Good, that's what I thought. That's what I want to do with Kiera." Kiera was his best friend in preschool and they were inseparable. Two years later, he still remembers how much fun they had playing Superheroes.

As our pediatrician once declared, "I don't care what the Supreme Court says. Boys and girls are different, and they know that they're different from the time they're born. No one has to tell them!" Maybe this is why my three-year-old daughter, who is up daily at the crack of dawn, makes her own bed, dresses herself, and neatly folds her Curious George pajamas while my sons can't put their own socks away without forgetting where they're going and why. Let anyone mess with their sisters and they'll meet fists of fury, however.

Viva la difference.