HOME / diary: A weeklong electronic journal.

David Owen

diary:
entries
12345

By Posted Thursday, April 10, 1997, at 3:30 AM ET
Share this article on Digg
Share this article on Buzz

When I am on the road--as I am now, in Augusta, Ga.--I have a hard time keeping up with my kids. Specifically, I have a hard time keeping up with my daughter, whose world has suddenly become one of rapidly developing romantic crises. She is in seventh grade, and the girls in her class now spend essentially all their time debating whether one or another of them ought or ought not to be "going out" with one or another of the boys. I use quotation marks because the activity in question involves neither "going" nor "out."
Here's what happens. One of the girls sets her sights on one of the boys and asks him if he would like to "go out." He says that he would not. Dire notes are passed among the girls, and secret meetings are held. A committee of the girl's advisers tracks down the boy after class and confronts him with evidence that he and the girl are perfect for each other. The boy, seeing no escape, relents. The girls celebrate. The next day, the boy decides that, although he would not have chosen this fate for himself, he might as well act the part, and he waits in the hallway to walk with the girl to lunch. She finds his attention suffocating and disgusting, and angrily brushes past him. The next day, the girl--after sobbing with her advisers on the phone far into the night--breaks up with him and, not infrequently, informs him that she hates him.
Someday, I know, the boys will have hormones, too, and the stakes will irrevocably be raised. For the time being, though, I am good at giving advice. When my daughter comes to me in anguish and says that Heidi and Kyle, for example, don't seem to be getting along, I know exactly what to say: "I think they ought to break up."


diary:
entries
12345

By Posted Thursday, April 10, 1997, at 3:30 AM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTEmail to a FriendE-MAILShare This ArticleRECOMMEND...Get Slate RSS FeedsRSS
David Owen is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a contributing editor of Golf Digest. His most recent book is My Usual Game: Adventures in Golf.
What did you think of this article?
Join The Fray: Our Reader Discussion Forum
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
The places we live.TODAY'S PICTURES: The places we live.
Cartoonists' take on homosexuality.TODAY'S CARTOONS: Cartoonists' take on homosexuality.
How low she can go.TODAY'S DOONESBURY: How low she can go.
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
Secretary Clinton?
Broder | It's not a good fit for her talents, or the next president.
Toles: A Layered ProblemEditorial: What Would Bill Do?