Girls Have Fun?

MerriGrace is 10 years old and a girl. You probably know that already but I just thought I'd point it out. Last night she went to a friend's house for a slumber party and while on my way to pick her up this morning her friend's mom called to ask if MerriGrace could stay and play until sometime this afternoon. Sure, was my quick reply. Well, this afternoon turned into tonight and we rendezvoused about 8 o'clock to pick up MerriGrace. On the way to pick her up, with Julie riding shotgun, I wondered aloud, "What kinds of things do 10-year-old girls play?" I was utterly, completely baffled. Beflummoxed even. You might point out that I've already had two 10-year-old girls pass through on the way to being older and that I should know what kinds of things they play. Let me answer that by saying at this point I should know what causes Julie to get pregnant. I'll leave it at that. And I have no "personal experience" in being a 10-year-old girl, and I'm one of those guys who typically learns through personal experience. For most things.

Julie offered a few suggestions of what they might play and I just wrinkled my nose. "That can't be fun," I said. "No Wiffle ball, football, basketball, dirt clod fights and seeing who can make the loudest bodily function -- without having to change their britches. How can not doing those things be fun?" Julie just sighed. "You play the same things when you're 4, 5, 6, 14, 25 and 40," she said, with a hint of disgust. "That shows my reliability," I replied. "A steadiness. Why mess with something that works?" Julie just shook her head.

So MerriGrace got in the van and I hit her up with the big question: So what did she do? MerriGrace claims she had soooo much fun. They played "Dance Contest" (fortunately she couldn't see my humongous eye roll), watched three movies, jumped on the trampoline, played with the Wii (hmmmm, that's not so bad), went down to play in the creek (but they didn't catch frogs, go fishing, or anything remotely fun) and talked. She says they did a bunch of other really fun things, but I have my doubts. I'll have to take her word for it. As Julie might say, what do I know?