I'm a mom (who was once a girl) who is raising daughters (more girls), so I really don't know much about what it means to parent a boy. I do have nephews, however, and though they often have different interests than my girls, they don't seem like entirely different species altogether or anything.

So I don't really get it when people go on and on about how boys are so different from girls. I mean, at my house, we have potty talk issues, and mud/dirt issues, and too much Kung Fu Panda-ing issues. How different can it be?

(My friends with boys assure me. It can be very different.)

Over at Time, Belinda Luscombe wonders if it's exactly that difference that has kept young boys -- with the exception of John F. Kennedy, Jr. -- out of the White House for the last 80 years. She muses, somewhat hilariously, if boys just can't behave long enough for their parents even consider hitting the campaign trail.

"It's like 11 straight months of being in church when you're the preacher's kid - with long car rides in between. It's torture on adults, let alone children. But it's worse for boys. Try this experiment: next month ask your son to be on his best behavior in front of other people, from now until November 2009. See how far you get."

Remembering those graceful, well-behaved Obama girls standing on stage the night their dad was elected, perfect in their designer dresses, one has to wonder if she has a point. Maybe having sons at home is exactly why John McCain didn't make his run for the White House until he was 72!