Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Old Enough


Amy's teacher contacted me last week to discuss a concern she had. Apparently Amy and another little girl were stirring up trouble in the entire First Grade by talking about dating and boyfriends and who was dating whom.

Long story short, Amy got the whole class completely out of sorts when she said she was going to go to the movies with a particular boy. The class was disturbed because they were under the impression that another little boy was her boyfriend.

Yes- I did say FIRST GRADE. The teacher tried to be understanding, but I still couldn't help but feel like she was thinking, "What on earth are you teaching this child???"

And I thought back, "Gee, I have no idea. Have you MET Amy??? It's not like I really teach this child anything. She finds it allllll on her own!"

I sat down with Amy and began with a sigh- the way I expect I will began many conversations with her over the course of her lifetime.

"Amy," I began, "did you and some of your friends talk about going to the movies with some boys?"

"Yeah- but we decided not to," she said nonchalantly.

"Okay, good. Because you are a little young to be dating, don't you think?" (Always better for her to think it's her idea...)

"Yes," she agreed. "I really don't want to be tied down this young."

I sighed again.

"I think some of the girls were concerned that they were too young to date and that their parents would be upset," I ventured.

"Plllbffff. Yeah, I know. Leeah is SO dramatic!" she proclaimed.

I sighed again.

"So, we don't need to talk about dating anymore at school, okay?"

"Oh, no. I won't. I told my teacher I was sorry that it had interrupted her class."

Wow. Okay. Didn't see that one coming.

"Well, that was very thoughtful, Amy. I'm proud of you," I praised.

"Yeah, I know," she said, studying the bottom of her shoe.

I went on about my life assuming this case was closed- at least for a while.

Then while we were up visiting in Illinois, I overheard her talking to Hannah about the whole thing. She told the story pretty much as I understood it. But this time, she had added a new ending:

"So, I know I'm too young to date and go to the movies and stuff like that," she said. "So, I think I'll wait until next semester..."

I sighed... And then e-mailed the teacher to give her the head's up...

1 comment:

PUNKY BREWHAHA said...

That's too cute! At least they aren't talking about dieting or anything like that (yet). When we were younger, my sis use to talk about how all her friends were into dieting. It freaked her out and she stopped talking to them~thankfully!

So I guess that's a head's up for you?!