When I was growing up, albeit in a Christian church environment, to my mind everyone was married and they were husband and wife.
I remember attending a telethon with my Dad once - I was about eight years old - and we were walking back to our motel room when another room door swung open and one of the presenters seemed somewhat surprised to see us. There was a polite hello, before he shuffled out of the room with a woman we hadn't seen before trailing behind him.
"Is that his wife?" I apparently asked, loudly and embarrassingly.
To my mind, age 8, any woman accompanying a man, must be his wife. His wife, it was not.
Fast forward about 35 years and my daughter (disturbingly with the same loud-mouth curiosity as her mother) is showing me just how much has changed.
We were at an open home the other day and the agent waved at the ensuite bathroom with a flourish and announced, "it has 'his' and 'hers' sinks!" My daughter, not missing a beat, immediately spoke up, "Why are you saying his and hers?" she enquired, "why can't they be 'his and his' or 'hers and hers'?"
Likewise when we looked at another house, a different agent opened a door and, looking directly at me, announced, "this Kate, is the laundry."
"Why are you showing Mum the laundry?" my daughter asked again bemused, "she doesn't do the washing, he does," she said, pointing at my husband.
It's not just the real estate agents, every facet of our lives comes with preconceived unconscious biases which we're so acclimatised to, we often don't even spot.
But the kids are onto it.
My daughter's growing up with a woman Prime Minister whose partner is looking after the baby, and despite the media's clamouring for headlines over how amazing that is, my daughter doesn't see the fuss. It's just the way it is.
They are growing up in a climate hyper aware of teaching equality, consent, and gender parity.
I don't see what's wrong with that.
