My "porn star name" is Sascha Dalphon, which I have always thought is pretty apropos, should my life take a strange turn in that direction via amnesia of some kind and a complete personality reversal, I think it'd be a fine "porn star name".

With the real name "Melissa" I was known as Missy for about 90% of my life, only recently having adopted Melissa full-time at work. The intern overheard DH call me Missy and thinks it's funny to trick me into responding to "Missy". She's lucky I like her.

DH dictated that while he is flexible on children names (and he is, very much so), his requirement was that there had to be a viable nickname for whichever we chose. As his name is Todd, he is fond of complaining- "Well, II can be Tod with one d, I suppose." He is most often called "Toad" by nick-naming friends. I think it's funny, then, that he most often calls Lily "Goofamachunk" as a pet name.

SO anyway, onto the diversion:

1. What was your nickname growing up? It could be a version of your real name or just something your dad called you way back when that stuck? Did you love it or loathe it?

2. What's your porn star name? Don't know how to generate it? Think, first pet + street you grew up on. If you have another variation, let us know.

3. What kinds of nicknames to you call your children?

If you feel like discovering your Redneck, Mobster or other "nickname", this place is pretty cute.

Last night, as Cristian was getting ready to go to sleep he asked if he could talk to me. This is how the conversation went:

Him: "I was called a name at school today."
Me: "Really? What?"
Him: "Well...can I say it without you getting mad?"
Me: "Of course!"
Him: "I was playing with a friend of mine, and this other boy asked if we wanted to play with him. We said no once we realized what he was playing."
Me: "What was he playing?"
Him: "He was throwing rocks at other kids in the playground."
Me: "That's not nice! Then what happened?"
Him: "He called me a 'pussy', then he said, 'oh, I'm sorry PUSSIES.'"
Me: "And what did you say?"
Him: "I said, 'At least you know how to pluralize!'" (That's my boy!)
Me: "How did that make you feel?"
Him: "I really don't care what people think of me, I just thought you should know."
Me: "Do you want to talk about what you think that word means?"
Him: "Nah! You can tell me when I'm older."

Now, the boy that called my son a "pussy" is the same age as my son...eight. My son has also been called a "fag" (last year) and when my daughter was in the 4th grade and nine years old, a classmate of hers tried to spread a rumor that Karina was pregnant, because she had food poisoning and went home sick. My head is spinning. Are kids growing up that much faster these days? What can we do to maintain our children's innocence??