Even when you know that your kids are very different from each other, it’s still interesting when you see it crystallize in an instant, as they react night-and-day differently.  To wit:

Riding in the car last weekend, my daughter asked me to turn it to one of “her” radio stations.  My kids have recently taken over the car stereo in a different way than in the old days, when we would pop in a Wiggles CD and know that we had at least 30 minutes of a happy back seat.  These days, she has certain radio stations she likes and has proclaimed as “hers”, and if you live in Seattle you can probably guess what stations those are.

I changed the channel.  We were in luck!  Both daughter and son were happy.  It was a song they both liked. (This is significant, I swear.  But then Macklemore is the great common ground anyway, yes?  At least in my house it is.  They always agree on it, and we listen to the [non-edited] album all the time, meaning that – yes, my kids have heard the “F” word.  Oops.)

Daughter:  “YES!  Hey, can we roll the windows down so that everyone can hear what song we are listening to when we drive by?”
Son:  “NO!  I hate it when people do that.  Then everyone would hear us.”
Daughter:  “I know. That’s the point.” (with accompanying eye roll)

I chuckled and took a deep breath as their upcoming teen years flashed before my eyes.  And although I consider myself to be somewhere at the midpoint of their differing views, I did not, ultimately, roll down the windows.