I was talking to my wife this morning about this discussion, and the notion that having one of each sex as parents being important. She's got (among other degr

I was talking to my wife this morning about this discussion, and the notion that having one of each sex as parents being important. She's got (among other degrees and years of relevant experience) a Masters in this from Harvard. It turns out that the literature about child development finds that much more important than "one of each" parent is having multiple available adult figures around that a kid feels comfortable talking to. This is for at least three reasons: 1. The kid can get multiple viewpoints. 2. The kid, during adolescence goes through the process of distancing themselves from their parents and during that time needs other sources of adult guidance. 3. The kid can compartmentalize what they talk to different adults about (one about sex, one about drugs, hopefully me about rock and roll.) Lacking that, a kid will get information from other kids. That's a dangerous road.