UN-Fucking-Believable!

This just freaked me the hell out, but I guess I don't have the balls to be rude and start an argument on RtB...

Over on Romancing the Blog, Eric Selinger is quite proud that his EIGHT YEAR OLD DAUGHTER has discovered Romance books.

"She sampled them all: the Bridgerton books by Julia Quinn, which she stacked and mulled over; Mary Ballogh, Jo Beverley, Susan Elizabeth Phillips… All took her interest, but none was handsome enough to tempt her–until, that is, she stumbled on Beverly Jenkins’s Something Like Love." HOLY SHIT! These aren't erotica stories, but they sure as shit have way too much sex for an EIGHT YEAR OLD to be reading!

"By now she’s also stopped skipping the sex scenes–instead, she giggles about them to herself and asks me questions on the sly. (Last night, at the sink: “Dad, what’s a corset?”) " Oh my, another proud moment, your EIGHT YEAR OLD DAUGHTER no longer finds the sex scenes yucky.

This next bit nearly blew the top of my head off. Note that I added the boldface for emphasis. "So how do I feel about my daughter’s first glom? On the whole, I couldn’t be happier. Jenkins’s heroines are wonderful: “sassy, brassy, and bold,” as it says about one on her website, in words my daughter quotes with gusto. (She loves that Teresa is an outlaw, and that Cara, now settled, once “broke every code” of proper behavior for love of a handsome man.) From my point of view, as a father, her heroes are even better. Yes, they’re gorgeous; they’re also protective, loyal, daring, and generous, both in and out of bed. (Neil, in particular, gets my vote. He makes Olivia wait for intercourse until they’re married; in the mean time, he gives her so many orgasms I lose count. And he cooks. Take notes, gentlemen!) " Are you kidding me? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? This is the moral standard you want your EIGHT YEAR OLD DAUGHTER to consider acceptable?!

Look, I probably wouldn't disagree quite so vehemently if we were talking about a 12 year old (although I would STILL disagree), but this is an EIGHT YEAR OLD! Give her a kids' book, give her a YA book, but why the fuck would you give her an adult Romance?

But wait, evidently he HAS given her age some thought. "There are, of course, a few dark clouds to accompany these silver linings. I have to be much more careful now about the romance novels I bring into the house, because if M– spots them, she’ll take a gander, guaranteed. And, alas, probably thanks to those love scenes, M– seems to have cottoned on to what my wife and I are up to after hours. “Dad, stop looking at Mom like that!” “Could you please not kiss Mom in front of me?” We get a lot of that, these days."

I am gobsmacked and horrified. I have 4 kids, including 2 daughters. Maybe we live in Pleasantville, but I can't imagine my kids or ANY of their friends being mature enough at EIGHT YEARS OLD to be able to handle the adult concepts presented in adult Romance books. They are CHILDREN, dammit. They grow up fast enough. WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU BURDEN THEM WITH ADULT CONCEPTS AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE? Let them be kids as long as possible!

And I will NOT buy the tired line "Well, they are going to be exposed to it anyway, so why not with our supervision?" Uh-uh. Nope. It's YOUR job as a parent to make sure they AREN'T exposed to it. At EIGHT YEARS OLD, you should know where they are at, who they are with, what values their friends' parents have, what movies they watch, what TV shows they watch, AND WHAT BOOKS THEY READ. It's your RESPONSIBILITY to PROTECT them, DAMMIT!