Sometimes Funny, Sometimes Thoughtful, Always Real, Always in Thongs...the Shoes, Not the Underwear

Monday, March 21, 2011

Parenting Pet Peeves: Is She Your Little Girlfriend?

I was having a chat with my friend the other day, and we were talking about how she was enjoying a bit of quiet, because both her eldest son and her daughter were having a play date at the home of a couple of girls from school. My friend's seven-year-old boy was looking forward to having a play date with this friend-who-is-a-girl.

We discussed how, at this age, our boys seem to get along with girls just as easily as boys. Then we talked about how it is the grown-ups who ruin things by saying silly things like, "Oh, aren't you two adorable! Is she your little girlfriend?" I have heard people say this to toddlers for goodness' sake! I know that no ill is intended (and please don't be offended if you have said this yourself); it is just my thing. It's like rubbing two pieces of Styrofoam together; it drives me barmy.


I suppose I've heard it quite a lot. Since he was a toddler, MasterFive has been close friends with my friend's little girl of the same age. They were pretty adorable, but why do we feel the necessity to make every male-female friendship that our children have into something it is not? Children lose their innocence all too quickly as it is. Why do we need to accelerate this by forcing romantic love onto them at an age when they are only thinking that Suzy is pretty cool, because she can run really fast and huck a loogey at 20 paces?

Having said that, I have started noticing the girls in MasterSeven's age group have started to notice my MasterSeven. Eyelashes have been batted, notes have been written, kisses have been stolen (but not reciprocated), and it won't be long before I'll have something real to be concerned about. 


Can't I just have them cryogenically frozen so I don't have to deal with them morphing into hormone-rampant teenagers? Girls: Keep your hands off my boys. Because. I. Am. Simply. Not. Ready. For. This.
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