I was also one reading terribly inappropriate novels way too young. I don't know that it really harmed me, though. It's not as though I got up to anything in high school or even mostly in college. (Though when I came out, my mother did go "but what about all the trashy romances you used to read?!?") But I have no idea, with the internet and whatnot.

India would be exciting, Brenda, ooh!

I too received a sweet little Avengers Valentine's Day card!

Mille grazie!

I know I read a bunch of inappropriate stuff when I was young - my dad left his SF anthologies and "trashy books" lying around (mom would occasionally forbid me from reading something of hers, which meant I had to read it in secret), and I roamed freely through the library - but I don't remember anything specific. So, no lasting harm, I think.

Timelies all!

~ma, ND!

My parents gave me Everything You Always Wanted to Know About sex to answer my questions at age 9. I snuck their copies of The Sensuous Man and The Sensuous Woman at age 10. The only damage that resulted from this was my belief that everybody should make an effort to become technically proficient and generous with oral sex.

Like the time she meant to rent Empire of the Sun and came home with The Last Emperor.

I went to a sleepover where this exact thing happened! And I still haven't seen Empire of the Sun.

Is Empire of the Sun the one with a young Christian Bale?

I have basically nothing left to take away from mac (that is not totally true, I could take away everything superficial from his room) and getting him to do work is STILL a fight. He knows he will not get back anything until he is doing schoolwork, and yet he still does not do what is needed and also lies about it. I am at a loss.

Today he "missed the bus" and "walked home" which means he missed tutoring. I don't believe him. He had his phone and did not call me. Furthermore there was a call to a friend on the phone it was only 26 seconds so I do not think they talked, but seriously WTF. There is zero trust right now.

Why is it that the times you most need a new job are the times you feel least able to deal with all the work involved in getting a new job?

Susan, we should grab coffee and commiserate. I swear.

We totally should.

Overall Annabel is much less interested in anything romantic/sexy than I was at her age. At 10 I hadn't run across anything explicit yet, but my Empire Strikes Back movie tie-in novel fell open to the Han/Leia scenes, and I was MADLY in love with Han. While at one point I did think Annabel might be developing a John Barrowman crush (and I approved her good taste), I ultimately decided Captain Jack amused her rather than made her all swoony.

That said, she's very fandom-savvy. We went to GeekGirlCon together, and King County Library System had a booth with various questions for attendees to answer. One of them was "Who do you ship?" I wrote "Ichabbie," and she took the marker from me and wrote two dragons from the Dragonet Prophecy book series. I commented that I didn't know people shipped those books. She gave me this LOOK and said, "All fandoms ship."

When she tells me about her story ideas, she asks which characters I think her readers will ship, and when we watch TV together she'll nod sagely at various Ichabbie or Korrasami moments and say, "The shippers are going to be all over that." But when it comes to actual established pairs kissing, that's still watch from the hall for her.