I don't have the answers yet, but I have learned enough to be dangerous, and ask better questions..

Unfortunately, it wasn't me placing one. (

Last night, my daughter left the TV on TBS tuned to some kid's show and pottered off to do...something. After some time of working away at my desk, I realized the TV was not only still on, but the show had changed, and it was Sex and the City.

Now, I rarely watch TV short of Law and Order and documentary films, so I don't know much about this show.

But of course I had to watch. For the most part I am pretty good at not getting sucked into dramas....as long as the TV is off. When it's on, I have trouble resisting.

And the subject was.....infidelity. The lead character played by Sarah Jessica Parker was in some sort of affair with a married guy, and she broke it off because she realized it wasn't going anywhere. She was also apparently in a long-term relationship with what looked to me like a really wonderful guy. He made gorgeous pieces of furniture for a living. He saw the beauty in the flaws in the wood, making some of them into features in his art.

He thought the flaws were the best part.

And I fell in love with him on the spot.

So while I am melting here, the lead character decides to break it to him that she cheated, and she hates herself for it. She realizes that he is this beautiful man and that for her to move more deeply into her relationship with him, she has to come clean. My daughter came in and plonked herself down next to me at some point around here in the storyline.

I should have immediately flipped the channel from this trash to something educational, like a pack of lions tearing the throat out of a wildebeast in the Serengeti.

You know, good clean educational TV.

But I didn't.

Because I was engrossed.

See, this is why I don't watch TV. I sink into it. No - I drown in it.

So, she tells him she cheated, and of course we are lauding her honesty in the audience, that she cheated and she regrets it, and blah blah blah.

And he is crushed, naturally. I held my breath, thinking, oh come on, they're perfect for each other. And he's this terrific guy, he appreciates the flaws in things - surely he'll see this is HER flaw, forgive her for it, and they'll kiss and blah blah blah.

BUT....he looks deeply into her eyes and says that really....

....he just doesn't think he can get over this.

And he leaves. She sobs her eyes out. Then my daughter turns to me, and in her million-year-old voice emanating from that 7-year-old body, quietly states that she should have never told him she cheated.

I almost fell off the couch, and immediately changed the channel to Sponge Bob Squarepants.

Shame on me for letting her listen to that crap! Mental note to never watch that show in her presence again.  I am still thinking about the show today, not because I have ever had first-hand (or first-body?) experience with infidelity, but let's just say the subject follows me around a bit, prodding me in the back, demanding a little introspection now and again. I picked my daughter up from school today, and we're driving home. I had to ask the question - why not tell the guy she cheated?

Well, because then he won't marry her.

Oh.

Silence.

Then she asks me a question.

What's a booty call?

And I then effusively apologized to the madly honking drivers I almost killed when I temporarily lost control of the car.

Damn damn damn damn how did she pick up that one?

Off the same show! Mental note to become MUCH better parent immediately. Buy some books. Get in some mommy groups or something. Do IT BETTER, Sharonella.

So how to answer?????

I said, well, a booty call....it's when you're really really....

.....lonely....

......and you call a friend that you've....

.....kissed....

.....before, and they come over and,....

....kiss you a lot more....

.....so you don't feel so lonely. And honey,

....you can't just say "booty call" like that again when mommy's driving....or when anyone else is around, k?

OK. Oh my, how am I going to navigate her through the next 10 years????