Sexy is the new poop. My 8-year-old son and his male compadres can’t say “sexy” enough without cracking themselves up at the naughty absurdity of it all. “Pass the ball you sexy, crazy lady,” Adam yelled at his friend Ben, during some pick-up basketball in the schoolyard yesterday. “Who wants to watch Victoria’s Secret on YouTube?” he announced later, referring to the brand’s commercials (I think). “It’s sexy madness.” I nipped that suggestion in the bud, of course, though based on an incident on Friday night, I’m pretty sure I’m not dealing with a “sexy” maniac, or at least not yet.
Two old friends joined us for dinner on Friday. They spend much of the year in Florida, so there was a lot to catch up about. Adam exiled himself from much of it, but after dinner he requested that we all play the board game Apples to Apples, and my friends, good sports, agreed.
If you’re not familiar with Apples to Apples, I can’t recommend it strongly enough as a great way to bond with your kids over a fun, thoughtful activity. The gist of it: Everyone gets a handful of cards that are nouns and proper nouns and has to pick the card that best suits an adjective card presented by the round’s judge. Most people look for the word that best captures the spirit of the judgment card, but some try to do the opposite and get chosen as a clever contradiction.
In the first round that Adam was the judge, he chose the word “complicated,” which everyone else had to match in some way.
One of our guests, my friend John, who happens to be a journalist and a word master, cockily said, “I have this in the bag,” and put out a card with the word “girlfriend.”
But the key to Apples to Apples is you not only have to be clever about words, you have to know your judge—especially when it’s an 8-year-old boy.
“Girlfriend?” Adam gasped in disdain. “I would never pick girlfriend for anything. I hate girls.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” John said. “It’s a good fit, see, because girls and girlfriends are complicated.”
“No, they’re not,” said Adam, dismissively. “And I don’t care.”
“You’ll see,” John added.
“I’m not picking girlfriend,” Adam concluded.
I could be wrong, but I think he would have had the same reaction if, instead of “complicated,” the word was “sexy.” Victoria’s Secret models are sexy. Third grade girls aren’t even of interest.
I didn’t ask.
Eric Messinger is Editor of New York Family. He can be reached at [email protected]
