Thus It Begins... (Ask Auntie)

Well, I asked for it. I did, just scroll down. You answered by throwing a gauntlet the size of a minivan in my face. But you know what? Auntie doesn’t scare that easily. Putting aside the very polite note Carlos Churchill wrote on behalf of his friend Ahmed Hassan to help move Mr. Hassan’s $18.7 million fortune here to the United States, we’ll begin with the last submission and work our way up to the first.

Thanks to all of you who spared me the indignity of writing the first few letters myself as someone suggested I do. There’s no way I would have thought of any of these.

Dear Aunt Scarycookies,

One of my secret fantasies is furries and being a character who has sex. I was wondering if you know anything about this and if you could give me some guidance on what to do. I don’t feel OK at all with telling people, but at the same time I keep thinking about it and want to know if more people are out there like me.

Howie

Dear “Howie”,

No, Auntie doesn’t know anything about it but that never stops her from giving guidance. Yes, keep this to yourself until you’re in a like-minded community, just because I’m guessing you don’t have a lot of martial arts training. That said, the words of wisdom you should take for a mantra are “Consenting adults”. There are lots of them. They live online. Find them and be happy.

Dear Aunt Scary Cookies,

How many pounds of butter can one safely eat at one time?

Richard


Dear “Richard”,

Unless you’re a character out of Dickens or Thackeray and actually have gout, the amount of butter you eat should be proportionate to the amount of exercise you get. Did you go to the gym this morning? Park a block away from work? Was there anything that caused the slightest increase of physical effort on your part? No? I didn’t think so. So here’s the rule: if you’re at home, you get one (count’em one!) of the little lines on the side of the wrapper. That’s a tablespoon. If you’re in an old school restaurant, you get one pat. If they serve it in little paper cups, you get half a little cup. Now either move your ass or don’t complain.

And now for the very first letter of Auntie Scary’s career as such:

Seeing our parents' mistakes, how come we aren't better parents?

I’m not a parent, but I’m not a Furry either and that didn’t stop me from answering “Howie”, so I won’t let it stop me now. First off, you’re already a better parent than you think you are just because you asked the question. You care how you’re parenting. That’s huge.

My parents’ generation, your grandparents’ generation, were all raised during the Depression, when good parenting just meant providing food and shelter. Your parents probably grew up during the Cold War, which wasn’t a particularly nurturing zeitgeist either. In other words, your parents were fucked up for a reason, and they probably didn’t know that they were fucked up because everyone around them was too.

You have the advantage here. You know. And you don’t want to pass it on to the next generation, which is an advantage for them.

So the answer to your question is that you’re doing a better job than your own parents did. Nobody’s perfect, but I bet you’re not making their mistakes, at least not twice. Wait and see the adult your kid turns into. Ultimately that’s how your parenting will be judged. Besides, you turned out fine, so stop worrying.

Well, that’s it for this inaugural episode of “Ask Auntie”. Thanks for sharing, thanks for visiting, and we’ll do this again as soon as Auntie has something to work with.

Remember, send your questions to AuntScarycookies@aol.com and until next time, behave yourselves.