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Refrigerator Children
Before they had a child, they spent eighteen months hashing out several of the endless dilemmas of parenting
Before they had a child, they spent eighteen months hashing out several of the endless dilemmas of parenting. They wanted to have an exhaustive discussion.
“What if it wants to shave its head?” the man said. “Or get a tattoo?”
The woman said, “A child should be allowed to do what it wants with its body.”
“At age six? Seventeen? When?”
“Whenever.”
“Will we tell it about Santa?” he asked, as they strode through the mall one rainy afternoon.
“Adults shouldn’t hold secret knowledge over children. The child should learn how to think for itself.”
“But lying to it will teach it doubt.”
The woman appreciated this thought.
“Will we give it a gender?” the woman asked, on the phone with the man. She was walking past an army recruiter’s station.
“No,” the man said. Then, “Wait. We’ll give it a very slight, very tenuous framework. We’ll let it know it has a choice.”
A month later, when they were in a gas station, they saw a twenty-something boy buying two boxes of…
