After supper, the boys headed in to the living room for a rousing game of Nintendo while Jan and I cleared the table, and cleaned the kitchen. As we were finishing, Jan asked me if she could talk to me for a minute. I agreed, and suggested Cokes at the dining table.

When we were seated, I just looked at her, and raised my eyebrow.

She started off with the big guns: "Dan, do you think my breasts are too small?"

"Why, do you?" I asked, trying for time to think.

"I don't know. A lot of the other girls at school have bigger ones, and I wonder if I don't need some kind of shots or something."

"Jan, I'm sure you've noticed that women have all different sizes of breasts – some larger, some smaller, most in-between. You're only 14…"

"Almost 15!"

"Almost 15, and I think your breasts are just the size they need to be – for you."

"But don't you think they should be bigger?"

"Trouble, I think they fit you just fine."

That earned me a dirty look before she said, "I didn't ask if you thought they fit okay, I asked if you thought they should be bigger."

"Jan, why are you asking me this? I mean, really?"

She hesitated a bit, before answering with "I heard some of the boys at school talking, and they all wanted to go out with one girl that has really large ones. I thought if mine were bigger, they'd want to go out with me, too. I want to be pretty, like she is."

"Trouble, I think what you were hearing was just hormones talking in those guys. Do you think your mom is pretty?"

"Sure!"

"But she doesn't have a large bust, does she?"

"Well, no."

"Stop and think about it for a bit: think of all the movie actresses that are so popular. How many of them have large busts, and how many are small-to-medium sized? And think carefully about what you hear guys say about the girls with the really large breasts, and look at the women that *most* men choose to be their wives. It's the difference between lusting after the unusual, and loving the realistic."