The boys' parents: What, them worry?

A postscript for Tuesday's popular post, on my imposition of a "no-texting-with-boys" rule on my sixth-grade daughter.

I circulated the post to parents of the half-dozen girls who Scout runs with. Later that night, I ran into a couple of those parents at a school-related pizza party. They practically slapped me on the back. Someone had to say it!

Some of the boys' parents were at the party, too. At one point, the girls' parents attempted to draw the boys' parents into the conversation about boy-girl texting. (Because if would be nice to have them on board, too, right?) But the boys' parents were uninterested, seemed unconcerned. I let it drop, because I am not the master of the universe, and because Scout had warned me on the way there not to bring it up with the boys' parents, who she thought wouldn't understand.

"H—'s dad thinks it's cool that H— has a bunch of girls' names in his phone," Scout added.

I owe it to myself to find a way to restart this conversation with the boys' parents, but meanwhile, it's starting to dawn on me: This situation with boys texting girls ... isn't this a new twist on a depressingly ancient situation, where girls—and their parents—have more to worry about?