To Moms (an dads) of girls:

Please let your daughters be friends with my sons. They don't want to kiss them any more than they want to kiss the other little boys on the playground. They just envy the friendships that girls are seen having with each other and want to have fun and play, too.

Please teach your daughters to like boys. This is not the time to talk about "my body is my own." Two unrelated lessons!!

I'm heartbroken by my sons simply wanting to play with a girl only to hear that she runs away from him or thinks he's chasing after her all the time to do something weird to her. Teaching girls that boys only want to kiss or that boys are made of snakes and snails or that boys are nothing but trouble is going to backfire on us later, because it's not right! Is it a parenting cop-out to help teen girls to appreciate abstinence? Aren't there better ways parents can get that message across than depriving girls (not even teenaged) of years of an entire gender of meaningful friends?

I'm doing double duty to instill a sense of self worth into them that will help them succeed in the world. I don't need grownups making life harder for them.