Dad gets ripostéd

The Peril is imparting wisdom to twelve-year-old Rusty, as the two of them (being the only morning persons in a generally morgenmuffle household) drive to the coffee shop early Saturday morning...

RUSTY: Dad, why does "Sweet Sixteen" have to be such a big deal?

DAD: It isn't really all that big a deal, son, except that every now and then every girl likes to feel like she's the most important person in the world, and "Sweet Sixteen" is as good an excuse as any.

RUSTY: I mean, I sort of get the quinceañera thing...

DAD: See, it's just that Mexico has decided that fifteen is a good time to let a girl feel like she's the center of the universe, and in America it's Sweet Sixteen; but the main thing is that you just have to understand that every so often girls like to pretend they're more important than anybody else. I mean, you might as well know right now that on the day you get married, you're going to just be an accessory. It's going to be all about the girl you're marrying...it's not going to be about you, or even about the two of you; it'll be Her Day. Nobody's going to tell you it's your day, 'cause it won't be; it'll be all about her...but, look, it's no big deal. If you're a wise man, you know that every so often the girls in your life like to feel like they're the most important person in the world, and you let them have their days.

RUSTY [with a wicked gleam in his eye]: Oh, you mean like you do with Kinya every day?

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Later on, after we quit laughing, I pointed out to Rusty that we guys all know that in fact we guys really are the most important people every day; so it doesn't hurt to let the girls pretend every now and then. Helps keep 'em in line...

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And to anybody panting to inform me that riposté is already the French passive participle as it stands and doesn't need a final d...look, don't bug me, man; if you were a real linguist you'd be able to tell the difference between French dialects...for example, the Metropolitan French of Paris, the Aostan French of Italy, the Acadian French of some parts of Canada, etc. And in that case you wouldn't need to be told which French dialect is used in the title of this post, as it is obviously le français du cou rouge.