What does "Normal" mean?

My daughter asked me that tonight. I actually pretended not to hear her for a moment. How do you answer when a six year old asks you that question?

Webster's dictionary: Normal (adjective) - conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern.

However, here is my question. Who decides what that type, standard or regular pattern is? I mean, whose job is it to tell my six year old daughter what normal is for her?

I am looking around at our society right now and that really scares me. The "role models" we have put up on pedestals around us. The people we have directly or indirectly given the right to decide what is the norm.

Vanessa Hudgens? Lindsey Lohan? Michael Vick? Al Gore? Hannah Montana? Rosie O'Donnell? Posh Spice?
I'm being a bit facetious, but you get my point.

I try to monitor and control what my children watch on television, read in books, what they say and what friends they play with outside of school. But anything other than that is fairly out of my control. I try to have a say so in what they learn and are exposed to at school, but short of getting a job up there, I have to trust the administrators and teachers.

When Queenie asked me tonight "What does normal mean," I didn't know what to say at first. I am not sure I would have had as much trouble had Number One Son or The Flying Monkey asked me that question. Boys pretty much do their own thing and don't really care what "normal" is. To a point, I mean all people want to be accepted, but boys seem to let things roll off their backs more quickly than girls. Girls are different. You can look at the women & girls who are in the public eye these days and see what I mean. (For examples see pretend list of who decides what's normal - with the exception of Hannah Montana. And obviously Rosie. don't get me started.) They look for approval. They say they want their own style, but they want to be noticed, they want to be a part. They want to be "normal." That is the burden of being a girl that I don't want my daughter to feel like she has to carry.

So I looked at her - my beautiful, smart, spunky, future of America daughter - and I said, "Normal is whatever you want it to be."