I was faced with a very weird situation the other day. My daughter asked me to go spend the night at a friend’s house if her mom said yes, and I said yes. She couldn’t get a hold of that friend. So she asked if she could go stay with our neighbor if her mom said yes. I said no. Why? Friend #1 lives with a single mother and has no males living in the house. Neighbor has an 11 yr old brother and a teenage brother, and I’m aware that grown males come in and out of the house with some regularity. The teenage brother frequently has teenage guy friends over, and they smoke weed in the shed behind their house, filling my yard with the fragrance of burnt honeysuckle of marijuana. It’s how 90% of sexual abuse scandal stories begin. I just can’t risk that.

But how do you explain all that to an 8 year old.

Scary world. No fun.