Success

I feel like I reached a milestone of sorts yesterday. My son won't like me mentioning this, but I must because it is a small victory for me.

My son has reached the age where kissing and romance aren't as gross as they used to be. Yes, it scares me, but I have done all the research on discussing the topic with him and feel somewhat ready to discuss it.

We have talked about how kissing on the mouth and “things like that” are for older people who want to share their feelings and love for each other.

The first conversation didn't go so smoothly. I knew he had already kissed a girl (on the cheek) and wasn't supposed to know. I brought this up to his dad and he suggested I wait until I see it on a TV show he was watching and kind of bring it up. Well in the TV show the kid was 13 years old and had just saved the world. So I think in the end I told my son that he had to save the world before he could kiss girls. I don't know what his future holds, but that's probably not a realistic stance to take.

So after a few bumps in the road, the conversations became easier. I feel more comfortable talking about the changes he's going through and he feels comfortable talking and asking questions.

He finally did admit to me that he had kissed a girl and that she was his girlfriend.

So, yesterday as I was exercising on the Wii Fit Plus, one of the characters he had created was jogging beside me. It happened to be the character of the girl he told me was his girlfriend. He told me that she wasn't his girlfriend anymore. He said that she just wasn't all that smart and he couldn't really talk to her.

That made me want to do a happy dance. Not because there was no more girlfriend but because my son made a choice to prefer someone he could talk to, who had more substance, rather than someone who is pretty.

I have been working hard to teach him to judge people on their talents, intelligence and morals rather than how they look. I've been doing this mainly to teach him tolerance, but I see now that it also applies to finding a partner. Love should be blind, and I'm glad my son sees this.