Boytoys fascinate me. And not for the reason you would think.

I just don't get the appeal of them. Whenever I see an official boytoy, like poor Ashton Kutcher, husband of 43-year-old Demi Moore, my first thought tends to be, "What does his dad looks like?" The father of someone young enough to be boytoy material for me, seems about right.

Why is that? Why, those who fancy boytoys aside, does our taste in the opposite gender tend to age with us? Why at nearly 43 do I think men in their late 40s are the supreme examples of the male of the species? Certainly, that hasn't always been the case!

My kids are fascinated by this phenomenon. Partly because they are repulsed by the idea that anyone could find someone over say, oh, 30 attractive. But partly because they see me as so out of touch with today's attractive men, like Jake Gyllenhaal and Zac Efron.

When they see a man they think is good-looking they point him out to me. My response is invariably, "I wonder what his dad looks like?"

The other day, one of my sons declared in desperation that he would need to take me shopping for a boyfriend in a nursing home if my taste in men got any older.

But I expect it will. And maybe he should. If I was in the market for a boyfriend that is.