Afternoon conversation

Me: Hey, Lil. How was school?

10yo: Productive. Catherine and I spent some time conducting Scientific Research.

Me: What kind?

10yo: We timed how long it would take to spin in circles, get dizzy, and fall down.

Me: That sounds like two physiological events: first, the onset of dizziness and second the point at which the dizziness resulted in catastrophic loss of balance. How did you separate the two?

10yo: We didn't. It's tricky to tell the start of dizziness, but when you fall, you fall.

Me: So what you're saying is that you favored the objective event over the subjective reporting of one?

10yo: Exactly. I spun for six minutes before I fell down. My head hurt at the end.

Me: That was probably a predictable outcome.

10yo: But worth it. Because Michael only made it five minutes before he fell down.

Me: Impressive.

10yo: Unfortunately, Catherine's dad showed up to take her home before she got to spin.

Me: Well, that's just going to skew your whole dataset.

10yo: I know! It was a very disappointing end of the study.

#sometimesitssohardnottolaughwhentheytalktome

Afternoon Conversation

10yo Lily: You know what the problem with this world is?

Me: No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me.

Lily: Gender normative hegemony. That's the problem.

Me: I never should have taught you that phrase.

Lily: Do you know what that means?

Me: I literally just said I taught you what it meant.

Lily: It means that maybe I don't want to have an appropriately girly Halloween costume. Maybe I want to dress up as Thor.

Me: Be honest. You just want that hammer.

Lily: It means that maybe I'm sick of people asking me if I'm going back to work after I have my baby. Maybe I wish they'd ask my husband that.

Me: You realize you're neither pregnant nor do you have a husband, right?

Lily: And don't even get me started about Trump and Hillary.

Me: Please. Please don't get started on that.

Lily: The thing is...

Me: You're right. One day without talking about the election was WAY too much to ask.

Lily: The thing is, people don't even realize that, like, so much of their dislike for Hillary comes down to bias they're not aware of.

Me: You really don't need to have this conversation with me.

Lily: I bet you never thought of that, did you?

Me: Oh for the love.

[& BTW, Lil: yes. Yes I did. http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/2016/05/implicit-bias-and-authority-why-voting-for-a-woman-simply-because-shes-a-woman-isnt-actually-a-bad-idea/ ]

Implicit Gender Bias and Authority

FMH just posted an essay I wrote about implicit bias. I think my sister's post on gene editing still probably wins the "coolest blog post of the month" award. But she works for Mayo, so that's a totally unfair comparison.

Also: my mom is totally not going to believe me when I say my motives are more about discussing the neuro/cognitive effects of bias than politics. But, yunno. Full disclosure: not a Trump fan.