"Sensitive Themes" Alert: if you are squeamish about reading about human sexuality themes on a Monday, just visit on another day...I'll probably be God blogging tomorrow.

Last night Wonder Girl and I watched "Grey's Anatomy" together, which we sometimes do. If you've never seen it, GN is a medical drama that borders on soap opera. The central character is Meredith Grey (get it?,) a whiz-bang surgical intern surrounded by other whiz-bang surgical interns, in love with her supervising resident, with whom she had a brief torrid affair before finding out he had a wife, who of course has just moved to Seattle, where this all takes place. (Deep breath!)

GN provides some fodder for mother-daughter talks between us, which is mostly the only good reason to watch this kind of TV with her. Infidelity, hyper-competitiveness among colleagues, friendship, medical ethics--all these things have come up in our talks on the sofa on Sunday nights.

But last night there was something I just didn't know how to broach with her. A woman came into the ER on a gurney having a spontaneous sexual climax. (There is a word I'm avoiding typing, not because I'm a prude, but because I want to keep the Google creeps at bay. I hope that fancy phrasing is enough to do so.) Which, of course, every character wanted to watch studiously. And they did. Hmmm...

So I look over at WG, who is sitting there, making earings, studiously Not Looking At Mom. She knows that my sideways glance is an invitation to conversation. She does not bite. She is sooooo smart!

The biological process (more creative phrasing) that this woman is experiencing repeatedly and without provocation is constantly referred to as an "episode". Her father is called to the hospital as her ER contact, he watches an "episode", and studiously Does Not Make Eye Contact with his daughter. Kind of like what was happening in our family room.

I have talked to my kids about sex and sexuality since they were toddlers. We always used anatomically correct words for all body parts, even those inside the diaper. (I'm pretty sure my son was the only kindergartner in his class who could use the word "vulva" correctly in a sentence. Oops. Here come the creeps!) But somehow, the subject of "episodes" has never come up in the conversation.

I know this was just one silly television episode...er...show, but why are some things open for discussion, but other things relegated to the euphemism closet? Why is infidelity okay to talk about on television, (and on the family room couch) but not "episodes"?