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Sex education
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Naked souls before naked bodies and you might reduce the heartache
21 Sep 2011 by Rod Smith / 1 Comment
Call me old-fashioned but (religious convictions aside) you, who is so hungry for love, you might want to get to know someone rather well, perhaps even have some semblance of a commitment, before you decide to engage in sexual intimacy.
Has he or she ever read a book? Once the heat of an intense physical bout cools, you might want something to talk about and you might find there’s not much of a brain behind the brawn or beauty.
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My 8-year-old was kissing his friend’s sister……. what should I do?
06 Aug 2011 by Rod Smith / 1 Comment
““My son (8) had a male friend (same age) and his sister (5) come over to play at my home. During their play of ‘Mummy-Daddy,’ I noticed my son kissing the little girl behind closed doors. I then asked them to play with the room door open. When I quietly walked in a few times later, they were kissing but quickly moved apart when I walked in. I really did not know what to say or do. My son requested that I not come into his room as they were playing with his toys.
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Five things to tell your children…..
12 Jul 2011 by Rod Smith / No Comments
TALENTS
You are probably especially talented in four or five areas – I hope that over your lifetime you develop all your talents.LOVE
I often feel unconditional love for you and I’d like it to always be so – but I am fallible and my love will often fall short. -
I hope your “partner” reads this and sees it as her impetus to bail……
27 Jun 2011 by Rod Smith / 1 Comment
Clean up your language. It might make you more attractive all round. If you swear while you are writing about your most intimate relationship, one can only imagine what you must be like face-to-face. How a person treats outsiders (those whom you do not know and who will read your writing) is a powerful indicator of how you treat insiders (those close to you).
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Son (8) asked if boys can marry boys and girls can marry girls….
09 Jun 2011 by Rod Smith / 2 Comments
Your openness and comfort in having meaningful conversations about personal topics with your son will not determine his sexual orientation but it might determine if he keeps talking with you and asking you questions about personal and important matters for many years to come.
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Verbal log-jam
When I was a boy I’d endlessly practice the fluent delivery of my name but it seldom flowed easily from my lips. As if it was new news to me, adults pointed out my stutter. Perhaps they thought I was beginning, at that precise moment, for the first time in my life to spit from the mouth, twist at the neck, jig my head back and forth trying to expel some inane statement log-jammed between my gut and my throat.
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Life in our beloved 122
If the inside of a house (outside, too, I suppose) is a metaphor of the lives of the people who live in it – which is something I once read somewhere – gosh, are we in trouble. Our house is a mess.
I consistently clean it room by room, thinking often of the legend that the Golden Gate Bridge that says there’s some guy constantly painting it. I feel for him. While I am sure the view is wonderful I must believe that the poor guy whose doing it daily from one end to the other must find the wind and the weather quite a challenge.
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Being a white South African can come with complications
Being a white South African reared under Apartheid is no simple matter. It permeated everything for me. While I do not pretend to have been a political activist, I was always cognizant that my privileges, simply a result of being born white, were unmerited, and most unfair especially when enjoyed at the expense of others who were not. I think this unsettling truth (for I took advantage of my station in life) was somewhat of a companion to me from the age of about six or seven.
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Location, location – remembering winter in August
We live very close to our school and church, so close we can hear the school bell from our kitchen and the church bells in my bedroom.
Sometimes we walk to both and we don’t see the car for days.
I like it. I like not having to get in and out of the car. I like not having to negotiate traffic, something as synonymous with life in the USA as Disney, Fast Food, and the Fourth of July.
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Ready to adopt?
If you wait until you are ready to adopt a child you never will because you will never be ready. The baby, and only the baby, will make you ready. Reading the right books will be helpful, but “ready” magically comes upon you when a real baby is sleeping in your arms or crying in the middle of the night. If you are not ready to change diapers – and I always am amused at the big deal about this non-issue – being unprepared will last only as long as a clean diaper.
Life inside the Smith household
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