If I could write the handbook for my own childhood, I would have written to my parents, "Autism and gender socialization do NOT mix. Allow your child to find their own path." Then, "When your child is 2, they will cry for a penguin with a sore foot on Philip Island, and they will cry for the penguins that have sticks and umbrellas poked down into their burrows and flashlights shone down into them. Your child has empathy that you don't yet understand. When your child is 3, they will spend time talking to the cocker spaniel called Prince in the caravan next door, when you're on holiday."

Then, "When your child is 12, they will come to you and say, "Mum, I hate Colonel Paul Tibbets."" You will ask why, and they will tell you the story of Sadako, who died of leukaemia after being exposed to the atomic bomb blast at Hiroshima. They will be quite sensitive about this is they are learning Japanese, but what will hurt them more is that they learn their intense dislike of Paul Tibbets is justified, as he talked of dropping the Bomb as if it were a joy flight in a Tiger Moth and claim that he had not lost a night's sleep over it.

Your offspring's empathy will help shape their politics, and they will lean very strongly to the Left.