Katie just doesn’t get her brothers.

“Moooooom, Peter’s bleeding!” Peter might have been bleeding, but he did not want to stop playing. She stood in the kitchen stamping her foot and looking at me. It was obvious that I was expected to do something. The child needed medical attention.

“Moooom, you can see Billy’s underwear through his white baseball pants!” Actually, I pointed out to her that you couldn’t see his underwear because he is very particular about his shirts which are always neatly tucked into his pants. You could see his orange striped shirt, but not his underwear. This was very embarrassing. For her. Billy was happy to be wearing baseball pants and nothing, not even lack of white underwear, would stop him.

Not too long ago, there was a verbal scuffle in the living room. Parental intervention revealed that Fritz yelled at his sister for “interrupting” the hockey game. Fritz was chastised for his poor behavior, but I felt it necessary to explain to Katie that men do not like having their sports viewing interrupted.

“Nobody likes it when somebody talks during a show,” protested my husband, also a bit grumpy for having his hockey game disturbed, and not at all pleased at being the target of sexist remarks.

“In a woman’s mind, there is a big difference between a movie with dialogue and a hockey game.”

He didn’t agree, and I doubt any man in my life would. Which is why I will continue the sexist training of my daughters. Once they master Men and Sports 101 which covers talking during games and commercials (especially ones for beer), as well as blood, injuries, clothing, hygiene and good luck rituals, we’ll move on to level 201 which will discuss techniques for turning off the TV so you aren’t interrupting when you do talk.