Thursday, September 1, 2011

Boys and Girls...and Girls and Boys...

My three oldest kids started school in July.  Nora started kindergarten, Brady is in third grade, and Brennan is in fifth grade. 

On the second day of kindergarten, I meet Nora at the sidewalk of the school to walk her back to our car.  Anxious to hear about the first full day with all 26 children, I ask her how it went.  Holding my hand, with her oversized backpack bouncing along with her, she looked up at me with her gorgeous blue eyes and breathlessly said, "Oh Mom, it was really, really great!  I fell in love with this boy today!"

Not the answer I anticipated.  I fell off the sidewalk in surprise.  What about Math?  Reading??  Tell me something about Art, PE or Music!  Not boys.  No, no, not at 5...

Not only did she find her prince charming (who's name she did not know) but she spent her recess watching him and following him around on the playground. 

Now I have to talk to my five year old about anti-stalking laws. 

Girls are a non-issue for Brady, as one would expect.  He has a handful that he refers to occasionally, but they are either A) the really funny ones that make him laugh, or B) the really bossy ones that tick him off.  Nothing else.  I've seen a few of them giggle around him, as schoolgirls are prone to doing, but he's clueless.  He is operating in a completely different realm. 

The generous splash of freckles and those big blue eyes that you loathe at 8 will come in handy someday pal, even though you may not know it yet...

Then there is Brennan, my level headed, practical, type A, tween.  Having spent most of last year memorizing sappy Talyor Swift lyrics, and recently having seen "Gnomeo and Juliet" she asked me about Romeo and Juliet.  "Who were they?"  "Why are they in so many songs and movies?" "What's the big deal about them?"  (she also asked me this same question about Mick Jagger recently, funny enough).

I explained the short-short version of the story of Romeo and Juliet, the star crossed lovers bit. I told her that as the story goes, they were so desperately in love with one another, that they both decided life was not worth living without the other, and they killed themselves. 

She looked at me incredulously with a hint of annoyance, and said, "Mom, that is just really, really stupid.  I mean, why didn't they just wait a while and find someone else to fall in love with?" 

And that, right there, is one of the reasons that I write this blog.  Someday, in the not-too-distant-future, she will be wallowing in a seemingly insurmountable hearbreak, as only teenagers can.  I will call up this story and show her how wise she was at the tender age of 10.  Maybe she will take some of her own advice.