Ba-boom! Ba-boom! { I listen in as my kids strum their heartstrings }

B is vocal and outspoken about what she thinks; and is pretty direct in talking about her crushes, too. I feel so privileged that she finds me worthy to openly confide secrets to. When she candidly opens her heart to me, it validates that C and I have established a valuable and open relationship with her, and her openness in talking about young love is a natural extension of that.

In the early months of this year - in the summer months, to be exact, she has been telling me about this certain little boy who swims with her. Since they see each other in the pool on most days, they have apparently both talked about crushing on each other. It was a good thing I was seated, too, as you can just imagine the upheaval I felt within me.

She comforts me, “but we are not marrying each other, ha! Just boyfriend and girlfriend lang.” Haayyy! Though I do not react, in truth I feel panicky over her disclosures. That very night, at my incessant urging, C stayed longer in the kids’ room after their night time prayer, extending the bedside talk till the topic reached this dreaded topic.

He started by telling stories about his own childhood experiences. He shared his most embarrassing moment which had all the kids rolling with laughter; his own childhood crushes and how he thinks girls should wait for the boys to make the first move. The latter launched B into a series of why’s.

“Why should boys always make the first move, daddy?” “Why can’t girls do it, huh?”

C wanted to segue that girls should not be aggressively seeking boys out, but he just could not find the right words to use to make a seven-year old understand his point. I do not know what C was thinking when he said, “because boys find it more challenging - it is more fun that way, if the boys pursue the girls.”

He found his hand scratching his head when B said, “It’s ok, Dad. I don’t mind. I want to have fun, too!” Ay-ya-yay!

But just a few weeks into the start of school, on our drive home, she casually opened up the topic that she had broken off with him.

“Really? What happened?” I prompted her to divulge more, my voice sounding freaked-out than I wanted to let on.

“It’s okay, mom, don’t worry I told him off nicely. I did not want to hurt his feelings, eh, so I told him that we stop being boyfriend-girlfriend, and just be friends – (after a long pause) good friends – (after another elongated pause) really good friends na lang."

Just as rapidly as viruses and bacteria spread, ideas and behaviors spread speedily as well. Even J, the normally placid one, has discovered her attraction to the opposite sex in the course of the last three months. Yikes!

We were in the car and just like that, she casually opened the topic, “Mom, guess who my crush is?”

Expectedly, the rabid spread of the L-O-V-E virus doesn’t stop until it imposes itself on everyone. Not even my li’l man is spared as he goes crushing on a swimming team-mate. But for now at least, it is just a kiddy crush — R’s true love is his mommy.

“I am going to marry my mommy because I love her,” he explained, wrapping his chunky arms around me and drawing me closer for a kiss.

Which got a quick reaction from the daddy, “Go find your own wife to marry. Mommy is already mine!”

 

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