Pregnant Thoughts

Girls get a movie heroine and boys get a literary protagonist.

So Thing 1 can go off with other daughters to bring their collective wisdom and experience to learning the lessons of the the PG-13 Juno. And since all the boys of her cohort don't read, it seems unlikely they'll be influenced by Nick Hornby's first YA Novel, Slam, a teen boy's look at being a father.

So where does a dad find the teachable moment — is it even there — to be found from a movie about a 16-year-old mom-to-be and the story of a boy who gains wisdom from a Tony Hawk poster?

Or is any attempt to guide a child's thinking doomed (hopefully only metaphorically) in the same way as the father who became NYC's last man of 2007 killed, murdered because of his 13-year-old's eyeroll.

** If only girls had the book and boys the movie. What were the culture mavens thinking? **