Lil, you bring up a very important point here. Children need to be taught to have friendships with the opposite sex. Boys need to have friends that are girls...not only girlfriends, and girls need to be taught to have boys that are friends...not only boyfriends.

I think this starts at a very early age.

One thing that can really be helpful (and I've seen this happen with my two youngest children who are only ten months apart) is having a sibling of the opposite sex very close in age. My youngest two grew up playing with one anothers' friends because they were so close in age. As a result my younger son has friends that are girls and my daughter has friends that are boys. It is actually something that others have commented on because they are very comfprtable withthe opposite sex.

I wish I could say I planned it, but I didn't, it just happened and I think it's healthy. Chalk up one thing for having kids 10 months apart!

So much to think about while raising kids, isn't there?