RIP Common Sense...

[teleen_fiction]

Not crediting where I got this because I've seen it more than one place.   Also, since some of this commentary is negative, I don't want to single anyone out, as it's not directed at anyone who's posted this.  If it's in italics, it's mine.  

Obituary printed in the London Times - Interesting and sadly rather true.

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend,Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair;
- and maybe it was my fault.
 

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

It depends on the adult and it depends on the child.

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

If the student was autistic and the teacher screamed at him, he or she deserved to be fired.  Or if it was the case of my seventh grade shop teacher, who was a racist (based on previous comments and behavior) who finally slapped a black student.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

This one I actually agree with.  Schools aren't a babysitting service and parents need to stop treating them as both daycare and co-parents. 

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Sun lotion is one thing, but honestly, I'd want to have to sign a form at the beginning of the year before my child got any medicine, simply because of allergies.  I do think that a form at the beginning of the year is plenty, though.

A pregnant 11-year-old who was raped by her father shouldn't have to get his permission to abort his baby. Nor should he be notified of her condition. Or a pregnant 15-year-old whose parents are fundamentalist Christians who would force her to have the baby even though she doesn't want to. Or a pregnant girl whose parent's are against her having the baby and who would try to talk her into an abortion.

Like it or not, once a female is pregnant, she's a woman, no matter what her age is. She may not be a mature woman, but she is a woman and must be given ownership and rights over her body.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Churches have always been businesses. Always.

Criminals receiving better treatment than their victims... Okay, I can see this one, but given the human rights violations in times past, I do think that a reformation of the justice system was in order. Also, given the stereotype of every prisoner getting raped and/or having violence done against them even in current times, I think that we have a long way to go in making the punishment fit the crime. Prison isn't supposed to be fun, but very few people would trade 'three hots and a cot' for being a prison bitch.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

This one hurts my brain.  If someone breaks into my house, I'm shooting them.  Period.  I can't afford to take chances with my life and if you come into my house, I'm assuming it's not for my stuff, it's for my body.  Plus, how many burglars kill the witnesses in home invasions? So yeah, I agree with this one, too.  If a stranger breaks into my house, I have a legitimate fear for my life thanks to television.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

The McDonald's with the famous hot coffee had actually been sited a few times previously for having coffee that was TOO hot.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;
I Know My Rights  Why is knowing your rights a bad thing?
I Want It Now Can't argue with this one.
Someone Else Is To Blame Or this one.
I'm A Victim This is an extreme oversimplification.  

Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone.

*********************************************************************************

I've seen this floating around quite a bit and felt like I needed to rebut some of what's here.  On the one hand, it's a cool thing to rally around, the idea that all of this is common sense and we all should go back to the way things used to be.  Sorry, in the 'good old days', abortion was illegal, schools could paddle students or whip their hands, there were public floggings, and prisons were places where criminals were sent to die because most crimes were capital offenses and so a prison was something of an anomaly. 

There are two sides to every story.

It's very easy to say, "Well, it's common sense that a girl's parents should be notified if she's pregnant," because there's this idea that children belong to their parents, as in property.  Sorry, they are individual human beings with their own rights and rights to their bodies.  Parents have an obligation to guide them and the right to withhold privileges if that guidance is ignored, but their rights end where the child's body begins.  If I were the parent of a teenage girl, I know that I would want to know if my daughter were pregnant.  I would hope that I would have fostered the sort of relationship with her that she would feel as though she could come to me and we could deal with it.  However, I would not have the RIGHT to know.  Period.  It's her body and she has a right to privacy, even if she's living with me and I'm providing all of the support for her.

Because she didn't ask to be born.  I chose to have her and chose to accept that I would be having an individual, not an extension of my self and not an accessory.  And most definitely, NOT PROPERTY.  Children aren't pets.  They are immature human beings with the same frontal lobe that I have and while they need care, protection, and guidance to ensure they become mature adults, I don't have absolute rights over their bodies, especially not once they're able to produce children of their own.

I think this is coming back to the whole "How Old Is Fifteen Really?" debate I had earlier.  The fact is, once a girl is capable of having a baby, she's a young woman.  She may not be an adult, necessarily, but she is a woman.  And as soon as a boy's sperm are motile, he's a young man.  Young men and women need to be given the rights over their bodies when they reach that point, regardless of how much it pains the parents to do so. 

I had to make sure to clarify that point because let's face it - a seven-year-old will refuse to be vaccinated because he or she doesn't like shots and parents have to make those sorts of decisions for prepubescents.  But once a child hits puberty, the ball game changes and to say that it's the death of common sense because young adults have reproductive rights is oversimplifying in the extreme.  

And that's what I really have an issue with with "RIP Common Sense".  It takes a lot of things out of context and tells us that valid moves forward in the arena of human rights are a bad thing because they somehow go against 'common sense'.  Common sense used to say that leeches were acceptable treatments and that cats were the familiars of witches, the latter of which caused the Black Death to spread across Europe because there were no cats to kill the rats.  

I have a problem with seeing this passed around without looking at deeper contexts and situations.  Not everything is so black-and-white as this would have you believe.  I know that all of you know that (at least I hope you do), but I really felt as though it should be examined before I continued passing it around.  It's very easy to say that these things are common sense and some of them still are, but I just didn't feel as though I could allow some of the sweeping generalizations found in here to pass without comment.

To those who have posted it recently, please don't think that this is in any way an attack on you personally for having posted it.  It's not meant as one, and if you feel that it is, then I sincerely apologize.  

ETA: As alt_universe_me just pointed out, why does Common Sense have to be male?  It's a gender-neutral concept - why did there have to be male pronouns to denote it?  I realize it was an obituary and so the person writing it might have felt the need to anthropomorphize it a bit, but even so - sexist language is sexist. 

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lullabelle_/]

Google this, and the first result that comes up is its recommendation and reposting on Glenn Beck's blog. I think that says plenty right there.

And I agree with pretty much all of this.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Wow. Thanks for the info, :).

[madder-rose.livejournal.com]

Teachers have an oath of silence, since most students are under age. We can only break this if we fear a student is in danger or being abused, and in most cases we'd talk to the student first, principal second and then work out a plan.

So, no, parents don't have a right to know everything because these situations are very, very delicate and most teachers think of students as the priority, parents as secondary.

I'll agree with defending your house, but if a neighbour keeps an assault rifle at home I think I'll be more worried about them than potential burglars... :/ There's really nothing an assault rifle can do (besides blowing people to bits) that my dog and a good alarm can't. So, yes, but within reason. Taking the neighbourhood with you ain't common sense.

And if the coffee is hot enough to cause third degree burns they deserved to be sued.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that about the teachers - I think it's a good step forward, :).

Hmmm. I see what you're saying about the assault rifle (the most deadly thing I own is a shotgun), but I don't wholly agree. I don't have a dog and while I have a burglar alarm, there are ways around them and a determined criminal will find them.

I don't believe in restricting gun ownership for private citizens. I don't think that they should have bazooka's or other explosives, but if they know how to use it (I would advocate mandatory classes for automatic weapons), then I feel it should be permitted. I don't think that a criminal should be able to get hold of a machine gun when a private citizen can't and all that gun control laws seem to do is take guns away from law-abiding citizens.

Re. Coffee - exactly! Everyone only hears 'oh, they got burned by hot coffee', they don't hear the whole story, which is that the woman was actually seriously injured by it.

[madder-rose.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about the US, but it's like that in most of Europe. Not that everyone lives up to it of course.

Well, most criminals don't get their weapons through legal means so there needs to be more action on that - stopping illegal weapons.

It's people owning weapons more suitable to invade small nations I dislike and would love to see restricted. Owning a gun (not handguns) strong enough to send bullets through floors and walls is ridiculous and I doubt most burglars come in tanks ;)

As a neighbour I don't care if someone has a handgun or a regular shotgun but I won't blame the burglar if me or mine are injured by someone else's assault rifle...

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about the US, either...

Stopping illegal weapons is very difficult in a country like the US, simply because we have so much border to cover and so many different ways of getting them, :(.

Generally speaking, it's very difficult for the average citizen to get their hands on an assault rifle. However, right now the only ones who have them seem to be crazy people, militia groups and criminals. Oh, and police. Given how crappy my neighborhood is, I often wonder how many of my neighbors have them, :(.

I agree with you in theory, but in neighborhoods where there are more criminals with assault rifles than without them, I wouldn't blame a law-abiding citizen for having a machine gun to level the playing field.

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I see what you're saying about the assault rifle (the most deadly thing I own is a shotgun), but I don't wholly agree. I don't have a dog and while I have a burglar alarm, there are ways around them and a determined criminal will find them.

Absolutely.

Dogs can be easily poisoned or killed, and burglar alarms aren't always effective. Having had a boyfriend who worked as a dispatcher for a security company, I can tell you there's too much a time frame for things to go wrong. They call you first to see if it isn't a false alarm because they get so many. Then they send the police. And the police don't always come right away if they do come....

Your best bet is deadly force. The more deadly and more skilled you are with it (so it can't be used against you) the better. Dogs and alarms aren't going to stand up to home invasions. Come into my place, you're going to get aerated. I don't support capital punishment, but in a life or death situation I'm protected my kid and myself.

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

I see below a statement about shooting a teenager in the back when he's running away.
That is murder, not justifiable self defense.

Just mentioning that, because being an idiot like that gun crazy Bernard Goetz isn't right.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

I generally agree with both comments, though I'm still on the fence with capital punishment. I'd be for it if it were enforced fairly, but since a disproportionate number of poor and minorities get executed, I'm against it.

And if a criminal is in my house and turns and runs, I won't shoot him. It's only if he tries to come near me that I will because I don't want him to take my gun and turn it on me, :(.

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

Exactly on both counts.

Modern DNA testing has revealed too many innocents on death row, especially People of Color. To me it is far worse to execute an innocent man than it is to let a guilty man go. (or woman.)

When an intruder turns and runs, he (or she) is no longer a threat. But coming to you it's an entirely different story.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

The DNA thing really blows my mind because it proves that the cornerstone of criminal prosecution for centuries (eyewitness testimony) is absolutely the most unreliable piece of evidence ever. Unless the victim knows his or her attacker, eyewitnesses are nearly useless, :(.

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

And confessions gotten by police interrogation.

Remember the "Central Park Wilding?" Where a woman jogger was beaten and raped, and left unconscious? She couldn't remember a thing, but the police grabbed a couple of young men of Color and they broke down and confessed to the crime after hours of grilling.

Now DNA shows no match between the evidence and the two kids, but it DOES match the DNA of a man in jail on other charges in Texas, and this man says he did do it.
I remember people yelling for the death sentence for those poor young men.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Disgusting. And I almost said that it was no surprise that it happened in Texas, but really, this shit happens everywhere.

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

The actual crime took place in New York, central park, where the two young men were arested because they were in the general area (in a freaking big park)

But, speaking of Texas, not too long ago they managed to prove the innocence of and release from 27 years on death row a man of Color convicted of murder. They had to work overtime to get this man free. And 27 freaking years of his life is gone. Nothing can ever repay that.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

There are no words for that level of horror. I can only imagine the pain and rage he feels, :(.

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

All really because his skin was the wrong color. I can't think of how awful that is. Yes, horror is the right word for being shut away in a violent zoo on wrongful conviction. D:

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

It's literally unfathomable to someone like myself, who's literally never had to face anything approaching discrimination based on my skin color.

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

It's enough to make you cry.

That was one point where I wished I was really rich so I could anonymously send him a nice fat chunk of bills, or something.

What really got me was that he was so happy to be out. Grateful to be alive.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

It's nice that he could have that attitude about it. Then again, if I'd resigned myself to living hell, being free of it unexpectedly would make me pretty grateful too.

Maybe.

I could see myself being bitter and angry about it, though. There would definitely be a lawsuit in my future. But money can't bring those years back, :(.

This situation is one of the reasons I really loved that show "Life". Yeah, he'd won $50,000,000, but he was more enraptured by fruit.

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

I would imagine that one's spirit could be broken, or damaged by such injustice. I don't know if I could ever recover from something like that. Money can never replace it, but at least a fat bundle of it would free you from ever having to work again unless you really want to.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't be able to make up for what was missed, but having true freedom would be nice, definitely, :).

[alt_universe_me.livejournal.com]

Very good points. On the surface, a lot of these 'simple statements' don't seem so bad, not until one looks further for the deeper meaning. The whole thing was just so generalized and intended to evoke cheap emotions with the readership, I think. You do a good job with this analysis.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

I agree completely about evoking cheap emotions - all of these things sound great on the surface, until you go deeper. Plus, because it's all billed as 'common sense', you get to feel as though you're somehow attacking what's 'right' if you say anything against it. In the end though, I just couldn't let some of this pass, :(.

[reddwarfer.livejournal.com]

I hate when people think they own their child's body. My daughter may get hugs without permission, but when she's needed more invasive help, I ask. I teach her to change and bathe in private. I teach her that her body is private, that her choices of what to do with her body are private. If she gets pregnant, I hope she tells me, but there's no right for me to know. If your kid doesn't want to tell you, that's on you--in general. I basically think that kids that don't talk to their parents have gotten the fear from somewhere. If you demonstrate that your kid can come to you, they'll come to you. If you demonstrate otherwise, they won't. Kids should be able to have a very safe relationship with their doctors based on trust and confidentiality. They should feel safe saying or discussing anything without fear that they'll be told on by someone who thinks they know better. I'd rather my kid be safe, learn safe things, do things in a healthy way, than for me to know about her personal business. H I say this as a generalization and realize some circumstances do not fit and are not applicable.

So, I agree is what I'm saying.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

:)

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

Beautifully said. :)

[coldwater1010.livejournal.com]

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

If the student was autistic and the teacher screamed at him, he or she deserved to be fired. Or if it was the case of my seventh grade shop teacher, who was a racist (based on previous comments and behavior) who finally slapped a black student.

Well I guess that's where common sense would come in. You don't fire a teacher for doing their job; you should discipline or fire them if they abuse their students and or power. You don't discipline students for silly things like using mouthwash; you do discipline them for bad/ inappropriate behaviour. Although I suppose kissing someone without their permission would qualify as sexual assault or battery, but common sense suggests that alot of six year olds probably wouldn't get that and there are better ways of discipling them for that kind of inappropriate behaviour that don't involve saddling them with a criminal record and a name on the sexual offenders list.

I do, however, feel that common sense is at least on a respirator or just taking a really long nap and wish people and institutions would exercise it a bit more so that maybe it'll get better. It really is a wonderful thing.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

It's easy to say that common sense is dying, but as your comment just proved, there is a LOT of gray in this and just saying, "This is anti-common sense" doesn't really help anything if one doesn't look at the entire picture.

Do I think that having instructions on one of man's oldest tools (the toothpick) is silly? You bet.

Do I like that kids can no longer be paddled in schools or that teachers no longer have absolute authority over them? You bet. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and even growing up when I did I saw too many cases of teachers abusing that power for me not to be glad to see them have more accountability. On the flipside, I still think that parents have an obligation to discipline their children and not expect schools to do it.

And bad/inappropriate behavior needs an exact definition. Right now there is a lot of bullying in schools that's tolerated by teachers. Hell, I can remember general bullying in the lunch line that teachers turned a blind eye to because they didn't want to get involved and/or didn't care. Gay students might bullied and have that bullying tolerated because the administration sees something bad or inappropriate about being gay.

The point is that there is a TON of gray in this obituary and simply saying that people have somehow lost their common sense does nothing to help the problem.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

That self-defence one is often misquoted - the law DOES allow you to defend yourself with proportionate force as is reasonable for a person in your position

If you are attacked you can defend yourself - as much as would be considered reasonable both subjectively and objectively.

If a teenager is running away from you, you can't shoot them in the back. That's not defence. (ETA: This is based on a court case in Britain when this was often held up as proof we couldn't defend outselves and it has bugged me a lot.)

And I've seen prison and represented people in prison -fun it is not

Oh and I am beyond sick of that McDonald's case so with you there.

The rest I so much agree with - the original post before your italics is just far too damn simplistic.

I know my rights: So we should
I want it now: And sometimes we're owed, especially in a society where people not only have it now but have so MUCH it that they are ridiculously over-itted
Someone else is to blame: Sometimes they are - often it's society itself
I'm a victim: And often we are

And children are people - not things, not property.


Nostalgia is, in many ways poisonous and - I think - highly privileged. Was it a wonderful era to be a straight, white, rich, neuro-typical, able bodied cis man in the 50s? You bet! And before the 50s? In previous centuries? For the rest? yeah... I like the 21st century

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

We had a similar court case here, I'm pretty sure, :(.

Again, prison isn't supposed to be fun, but accepting that rape is an everyday part of life there I think is the definition of 'cruel and unusual punishment'.

It's so very easy to say, "This is just common sense" when there are huge gray areas with nearly every one of those points. The whole post is filled with privilege. The privilege of never having had the system fuck them over, so they could say, "Well, life's not fair." It's fairer for some than it is for others.

Society has made a victim of many people and this whole, "Suck it up and pull yourself up by your bootstraps" just doesn't get very far with me anymore, :(.

There's this whole cultural feeling around kids which I call, "I brought you into this world - I can take you out!" which illustrates how a lot of people see their children - as extensions of themselves rather than as their own people.

I wouldn't want to have been born a woman basically before the year I was born and even now, I am sometimes acutely aware that my gender is seen as inferior in many places, some of them only a few blocks away, :(.

Thanks for your thoughts, :).

[mercury-pheonix.livejournal.com]

I have to reply to this and say I completely agree.

As someone bn in the early nineties, I have spent my whole life listening to people older than me lamenting on the "golden age" that we lost. And yet, when I look back I see advantages and disadvantages. Maybe I do see a world where you could "leave your doors unlocked at night" or when "neighbours actually spoke to each other" - but I also see a world where racism was rife, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia was rife (and anything other that challenged the heteronormative and gender normal stereotype), where my prospects, as a woman, would have been very limited, where there was severe poverty etc. etc.

Recently, a tabloid writer uttered the words - "Why does the European Court of Human Rights actually exist? Who actually needs it?" Amongst the nodding and grumbling and "oh yes, political correctness gone MAD" tone of the responses, I couldn't help but think:

"Well, obviously not you, Mr Middle-Class-Cushty-Jobbed-White-Straight-and-Male."

As Dara O'Briain once said - "the only reason you think it was better is because you were younger and getting laid more often."

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

Very good breakdown of this passage!

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Thanks, :).

[angstosaur.livejournal.com]

I agree ... can't go into detail - stinky cat on arms ... but it made me more than a little uncomfortable reading it, because there are some very broad generalisations which are insulting to more than a few people ...

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Exactly! It's the black and white of this post that's what's really getting to me, because it's treating as if everyone's both created and treated equally in society and that's just not the case.

As sparkindarkness pointed out, the whole thing reeks of privilege. Life is fairer for some than for others and to deny that means that the system has never fucked them over, :(.

[allisontracy.livejournal.com]

As a good friend of mine says. I need people with a good dose of Horse Sense 'cause Common Sense isn't common.

The obit was very generalized and as such can be insulting. Though I think were missing the point of it, I see it as an expression that we need to think more about our actions and what they say about us both individually and as a society.

I had asthma as a kid and had to keep my inhaler in the nurses office, where it did me absolutely NO good. Furthermore they had to make an attempt to contact my parents before letting me use it meaning even if I could make it to the office once an attack started I had to wait several minutes for phone calls to be made. I only had one asthma attack at school, ofter the first I simply refused to participate in anything that I was afraid would instigate an attack. I wonder now how much I missed out on because of overbearing regulations and zero tolerance policies keeping me from keeping critical medication with me.

On the gun stuff. I am a Hunter's Education Instructor and that 9mil a lot of people keep in their bedside table is a lot more insidious than you think. I have seen them punch through two walls and a bookcase because people don't realize that the ammunition is every bit as important as the weapon. A responsible gun owner using what you term an assault rifle would know to buy ammunition that would be less penetrative and therefore not be of any more danger of collateral damage than any other gun used.

Oh and if you think your alarm system will protect you keep in mind the only on site action it performs is to make a really terrible noise so your guard dog will be scared into hiding under your bed. Find out the average police response time in your area, or go with a private response firm.

Not criticizing just wanted to though my opinion out there. Maybe give someone something to chew on.
Thanks for letting me share.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

I actually wasn't the one against assault rifles, but other than that I generally agree with you. It sucks that there isn't a provision for being able to sign a waiver to allow a child to have their necessary medication, :(.

I don't have much faith in the alarm system, actually. I think that the alarm sign deters more crime than the alarm itself does, if that makes sense.

You can share here anytime, :).

[allisontracy.livejournal.com]

Thanks I think this is the first time I commented on one of your posts though I friended you due to having read all of your stories.

I got cut off earlier had to take a call.
Sorry wasn't aiming the gun comments at you but I tend to go back to posts and check the follow up comments so I figure other people do too.

The school board did finally (my last two weeks in that district) allow the Physical Education teacher to carry a students inhaler during their class period so it would be available, but it took a long time to push though. We had to prove that it wouldn't risk a violation of the zero tolerance policies.

I totally agree that schools aren't a babysitting service but if they don't want to be treated like one they should stop trying to go to a 12 month school year. My family always took the time in summer break to learn about something new. We learned watercraft, rocketry, motorcycling, welding and metalwork, basically anything we had an interest in we took summer classes on.

I also agree that once a woman is with child she is a woman and if the man was capable of getting her that way he is now a man with responsibilities as well. However my little sis has a blood disorder that means an unsupervised pregnancy would most likely kill her so I do see it as the parents responsibility to be observant, after all it isn't hard to keep track and ask a few pointed questions if a girls cycle is off.


I have been a lurker on a few of your posts you have an interesting point of view, thanks for sharing it.

[teleens-journal.livejournal.com]

Ah, I get it now, :).

Well, that was a lot of too little, too late, :(. Still, at least they finally did *something* about it for students in the future.

I think that the parents are a lot of what's behind going to a 12-month school year, honestly, but perhaps that's what you meant?

I'm not sure how comfortable I would be 'keeping track' of my daughter's cycle. However, given that I would likely have changed her diapers for a while several years before that, I think I'd probably be okay with it by the time it was actually an issue, :).

*blushes* Thank you so much for the compliment, :). I'll look forward to more interaction, :).