It was an innocent question, but one that marked an important milestone.
(OK, Barry…try not to sound totally dumbfounded when you respond.)
“Well..I remember the first girl I liked in fifth grade. Her name was Sue. But I guess my first girlfriend was really in high school.”
Awkward silence
“Uh..is there someone you like at school?”
“Yeah. Her name is Erica. We’re texting.”
“Oh, cool.”
“Yeah.”
I guess texting has become the precursor to actually having a telephone conversation. 
The talk
Trying not to be too sexist, we had a brief discussion that night over dinner about the fickle nature of girls in the pre-teen and teen years.
I shared with him how I’d been hurt some in my younger days because I simply believed what girls told me on a Friday only to find out that on the following Monday their feelings had changed.
To be fair, I also told him my own feelings had changed about some of the girls I liked as well and that it a part of the pre-teen-to-teen transition. I was trying to prepare him for the rigors of adolescent relationships without encouraging him to go out and experiment.
“Just be careful who you share your feelings with, that’s all,” I said.
“I will,” he replied.
And so it begins. 
The past becomes the future
I wasn’t too much older than LE when I experienced my first real kiss. It was with a girl named Lori and she was probably a year younger than me in age but light years ahead in the use of her tongue. 
She’d been around the block a time or two. After that one afternoon, I was never the same.
As a Solo-Dad, a part of me knows this is normal. I’ve raised three kids into adulthood and have been here before. Perhaps it’s because LE is the youngest, the most vulnerable in many ways…that I want to protect him a bit longer.
But in reality, that wouldn’t be fair to him. I’d be projecting my own preferences onto him and that wouldn’t do either of us any favors in the long run. In my heart I know that the long process letting go begins in these earliest moments.
