Our boy is in Love

Yes, our son is in love, but not the son you would think of!  It's Sean, and we've recently figured out that he is just enamoured with one of his classmates at school.

He has been talking about this girl a lot recently.  We'll call her Ally, just for privacy purposes.  Sean brought home his class picture recently and showed me Ally.  She is the most beautiful girl in the class!  Our boy has taste, I'll guarantee you that.  I asked him if Ally likes him.  "Oh she doesn't talk to me" Sean says, and he isn't sad about it, just matter-of-fact. "Do you think she's beautiful too?" he asks me.  He's never cared what I've thought about ANYTHING before!  He is in love!

Unfortunately for Ally, Sean doesn't know what to do with this emotion.  He gets all wiggly and excited when he sees her, and I asked if he talks to her.  "Why don't you just say hi?" I say.  "I do," he responds.  But it comes out more like "Hi-Ally-Hi-Ally-Hi-Ally-Hi-Ally-Hi-Ally...." over and over again until she goes away.  One day, he told me, he sniffed her hair.  She thought he'd kissed her, and promptly told the teacher.  Sean thinks it was funny, and keeps talking about it.  He calls her "Beauty" and likes to touch her neck.  He says he likes to just look at her too.  All a little disconcerting for poor Ally I'm afraid.

As parents, we see there could be an opportunity to encourage Sean to develop some social skills.  Ally is certainly a motivation for him.  I drop suggestions of nice things he could say, and have written to the teacher about it, but not sure if there'll be any success.

Part of me is just thrilled that my boy has a "normal" emotion like this.  Part of me feels sad for him that he can't get fulfillment from a friendship, and part of me is just plain scared for his future in the wild world of teenage friendships and dating.  Girls at high school will not likely take kindly to his attention, and it'll be a job to teach him how to be social without invading personal space.  Plus, by that time, we'll be dealing with hormones too.

But for the moment, he is just happy telling me about Ally, and his sweet puppy love.  Never thought it would happen, really.  What a guy.

This from the boy who was 7 years old before he told me he loved me, and has never done it since.