Tina: Oh, I agree. The most important thing is for him to have a positive self-image and for him to respect others regardless of how different or alike they are from him. Every individual has his own path and his own environment and family values. But that is not going to dictate how we educate our child and prepare him for an adult life.

Bette:  That’s another thing we need to discuss with each other. How do we educate him about the role of males in our society verses the role of females? Times have changed so much even since you and I were teenagers. The roles of parenting and protecting and providing have now somewhat merged together between males and females. Equality has come a long way, but it still has a long way to go. And yet there persist this idea that if males or females do not act in accord with some definition, then they are mentally ill or something. We have to come up with something that describes what the role of a man should be in a relationship or in society. And we have an awful lot of society working against us.

Tina:  Yeah, I know what you mean. I saw a lot of misogynistic attitudes in the movie industry.  And I have to admit that instead of rebelling against those attitudes that I went along with it get along. But I really do not want to see those attitude in my son. I do not want my son to think that men are superior to women. I do not want him to think they are inferior either.  They are just different. Let’s give this some thought and talk about it later.

Bette: Yeah, let’s eat.

Daniel came to the table and was completely dressed in his jogging outfit. He had already had his morning shower and performed his morning grooming routine. He said he would make his bed after breakfast. Bette then told him that it looked like there had been more snow than the forecast had predicted so that they probably would stay in for the day.

Daniel: Can we build a fire?

Bette:  Housekeeping is coming and they will clean out the ashes and build a fire when they come and we can then just tend it the rest of the day.