Love Like A Child

It is my goal to stay childlike in many ways. I want to have faith like a child, I want to have childlike innocence, I want to always maintain a childlike level of curiosity, and I never want to lose the boldness that I had as a child. That boldness allows me to stand up and say NO when I don't like something that's going on around me. But there is one aspect of children's behavior that kind of scares me. The way they "fall in love." When little kids get boyfriends and girlfriends, their actions range from hilarious to downright creepy.



Fidelity.

Let's take a look at my daughter's kindergarten experience with boyfriends. My sweet, precious, adorable little girl came home from kindergarten one day and happily announced, "Mom, I have a white boyfriend and a black boyfriend!" So after I stopped giggling, I found myself trying to explain to a 5 year old that, while it's great to be open to dating a variety of boys, you really should only have one at a time. ((sigh))



Weddings.

Fast forward a few years. My child came home from 3rd grade and told me she needed to bring purple flowers to school the next day. When I asked her why she needed them, she told me that her friends, R and T, are getting married and they needed purple flowers to decorate. These 9 year olds had planned an entire wedding. There were colors chosen, plastic rings, the wedding party and even an officiant appointed. If little R is already this picky about her wedding, I'm afraid she may grow up to be the biggest Bridezilla in history!



The chase is on.

As adults, men who are trying to attract the interest of a woman are said to be pursuing her. As children, the boys literally pursue the little girls. These girls are physically chased around the playground by the boys who love them. I've gotta admit, I'm pretty glad the idea of "chasing" girls changes from literal to metaphorical as we get older. Can you imagine if this carried over into adulthood? Yikes!



Just downright creepy.

I get the opportunity to be around a large number of elementary kids. One of those kids is a little 6 year old girl who has a huge crush on a little boy from school. This child sat down and wrote her love interest's first, middle, and last name over and over until it filled an entire piece of notebook paper. She then taped that paper to her door. This made perfect sense to her, and isn't creepy at all when a little girl does it. But this, my friends, is VERY CREEPY BEHAVIOR. If I was dating someone and decided to hang out at his place, a piece of paper displaying my full name written a couple dozen times and taped to his bedroom door would terrify me.

I know you all have examples of schoolyard love, so please go ahead and share them in the comment section. :)