First love is such a beautiful thing. You used to be a fairly articulate person but when they are around you stutter and stammer like a fool. It’s great.
It’s great until it is your child going through it. Then what do you do. They are growing up fast enough without us having to think about them “going out” with someone at the age of 10.
At first it doesn’t seem like something to worry about, it’s just cute. When the little boy or girl starts showing up at your door step looking for your child or calling them on the phone just to talk, it is another thing entirely. That is when you realize that this could be more serious. You may even wonder if you should be having “the talk” with them even though you still see them as your baby.
It is time we all wake up. Kids are growing up faster these days and the things we didn’t do until we were in our teen they are now doing much earlier. They seem to know more about the world than we do and are asking the tough questions, the ones that we don’t want to answer, before we are ready for them.
We all cried the day our child first went off to school by themselves or when they finally learned to ride that two-wheeled bike on their own. We just knew then that it was the beginning of the end. It wouldn’t be long before they would be leaving us for good. The first love is another milestone in their lives that is just a reminder to us that our time with them is very short and as much as we would like to freeze time and keep them young and innocent forever, we can’t.
We know that this first love is just a fleeting infatuation but while they are going through it they are sure that it is the one and only time they will ever be in love. We can tell them until we are blue in the face that they shouldn’t take it too seriously and that there will be many other loves in their life before they find the one that they will be with forever but what we say doesn’t matter. At that moment, for that time, the one they love is the only one.
Everyone went through it. When you are a parent the only thing you can do is sit back and watch. Try to remember what it was like for you and just know that this too shall pass. At least until the next time they “fall in love”.
