Stealth Sex

I was reading the local paper the other day and a kid's advice column cracked me up. In a piece entitled Hey, Cherie, a 14-year-old complained that her parents were too frisky and too loud about thier friskiness. Once upon a time, I would have seen it from the kid's perspective. Now, of course, I see the parents' side of things.

I have heard from a few classmates that loud adult play time with a partner has caused some pretty funny questions from their kids -- which is why more than a few of us, I would suspect, have had to change some of their habits and now try to keep their amorous entanglements below the kiddie radar. In a phrase: stealth sex.

Now, not to be too lawerly about things, but the 14-year-old who wrote the letter that inspired this post does have one credibility problem. She writes that her parents are doing it "almost every single night." No way. Parents with four kids and jobs, absolutley no way. The average American does it 132 times a year, with married folks making love about 98 times a year. The only group who is above average in this regard are non-married people who live with each other. (I wonder if this point is one that Nicky Grist makes.)