Related to a previous thread

[james_davis_nicoll]

I wonder what the worst bit of parenting advice in Heinlein's fiction is?

Comments

[wild_irises]

I can't tell you that, especially since I haven't read some of the later books. I can tell you the bit of parenting reportage that chaps my ass the most.

It's at the end of Have Spacesuit Will Travel, when our hero has been out saving the galaxy, being in terrible danger, learning who he is. He comes home and his mother (who knows what has happened) says "in a warm indulgent tone," "I don't mind where my big boy goes as long as he comes home safely. I know you'll go as far as you want to."

Trivialize women (and mothers) much?

Yes, I have a battered old paperback on my shelves so the quotation is accurate.

[wordweaverlynn]

That's right up there, but I suspect that Time Enough for Love has some bad parenting advice too. I hated, hated, hated that book.

[zeborah]

Podkayne's got to be up there too. Bad enough that I don't want to go (re)reading any more of his looking for worse, anyway.

[mme_hardy]

"Boys, I know your sisters are really really hot, but let's play this card game about the genetic consequences of incest!"

Edit: How Lazarus Long solves the "homesteading in a very isolated area" issue in Time Enough for Love.

Edit edit: I think I'm conflating two incidents?

Edit edit edit: In that case, I'm going for "Hold still, lady in labor, I'm going to up the ship's gravity and get that baby out of you RIGHT NOW!" Holy torn perineum, Batman.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Oh, lordy, I'd forgotten the gravity thing. Would that even have done anything, given that the baby would have stayed the same relative weight to everything else?