Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer had a delightful post about her husband asking for her hand in marriage. Her father's question to his possible son-in-law was amazing. It caused me to ponder once again our role as parents and the heritage we pass to them.

Once-a-year or so, our ethnic heritage comes up for discussion. One kid or another is curious as to their ancestry. Growing up I'd heard about my relatives many times. My mom is 100% English with relatives who remain in Great Britain. My dad's grandparents were immigrants from elsewhere; Germany, Italy, Ireland, & Holland. I am 1/2 English and 1/8 each of the rest.

When my kids ask, I share my mixed half, but Michael's answer for the other half is always "I don't know." When Christopher was in junior high school, we found out Michael's aunt was researching their genealogy, I suggested he email his grandfather and ask about it. The next day we received a very concerned phone call from said grandparent.

I couldn't figure out the nature of his questions, something about our son being confused, and that at his age, shouldn't he know these things. I was a little surprised, since his own son was clueless about his ethnic heritage. Finally he shared the email Christopher had sent and I understood. It was one simple question:

"What gender am I?"

(Poor Christopher, he'll never live this one down.)