Every time I read about Mary Cheney having a baby with her partner, I get this nursery rhyme in my head. You know, "Mary, Mary, quite contrary"? However, the only thing I can see that's wrong with her having a baby is if its grandfather wants to take it quail hunting. Other than that, it's her life, her relationship, and her decision. She didn't ask me for advice and I bet she didn't ask her dad either. But if she did, I bet he told her to do exactly the opposite of what she's doing. Kids are like that, even when they grow up.
I remember one of my nephews back in the Reagan Era, debating with his father about how Ronnie was going to get this country back on its feet and make it better for everyone. If he'd been old enough to vote, we'd have had to drug him and roll him up in a rug until after election day, or we'd have had the first Republican in the family since Lincoln won the war. Luckily, he was only twelve.
Turns out we had nothing to worry about. By the time he was old enough to vote, he'd totally had it with Reaganomics and opted for a career working with the population that Reagan had "freed" from institutions so they could live in freedom (and poverty) on the street. I suppose there's an off-chance that Mary Cheney will revert to her Republican roots when she's a middle-aged soccer mom, but in her case, there's a little more to overcome for her to subscribe to the style of conservatism her father's party embodies. She'd have to get a lot meaner and more ruthless, for instance.
A lot of conservative parents have radical kids and vice versa. And a lot of "just plain folks" have children who seem to be trying to zig to their parents' zags. One of my closest friends is a professional gambler, who plays the horses and dogs. His daughter is a PETA firebrand and plans to become a lawyer and put him out of business. They get along fine, though, in the meantime, although she doesn't go to the track with him and he doesn't have PETA stickers on his bumper.
My daughter is a fashionista with her own distinctive style. My fashion style is more eclectic as in "it was the first thing I came to in the closet". If I find something I like that fits, I buy several of them, which really bugs my daughter, because it means I wear gray T-shirts and blue jeans a lot. She says it's why she doesn't notice when I ask her to do something. She insists that her mind is just so bored with my outfit that it makes her yawn and she misses what I'm saying.
Her outfits, on the other hand, are never dull. Back before we started homeschooling, her teachers got very upset with me for "allowing" her to come to school with mismatched socks. (I think it may have had something to do with Homeland Security or maybe Channel One didn't allow it because they only advertised matched socks.) I never could figure out why I should care, but it turns out that she was just ahead of her time. Now, it's a fashion trend and there's even a company that only sells mismatched items! I just discovered them yesterday and had one of those, "Now, why didn't I do something like that?" moments.
I can't wait to see what my daughter's kids want to wear. I'm thinking dark blue tees and sweatpants. They'll probably grow up to be CPAs and importers of endangered species, just to annoy my artistic, animal-loving daughter. But, you know what? She'll love them anyway. Just like I love her and love her brother, who is working on becoming a weapons expert, which isn't something I envisioned when I took him to his first peace vigil many years ago.
Maybe it's how the human race makes sure that it won't die out from lack of diversity, I dunno. It sure makes for a lot of work for lawyers, though, when wealthy parents keep changing their wills because their kids won't toe the line. Not a problem in my case, because I'm a spendthrift and intend to get through every penny I own before I die. Luckily for my theoretical grandchildren, my kids are the exact opposite and will probably leave them oodles of dough that they can spend on things their parents would never buy. Like matching socks and polyester pants.