Dumping Girlfriends

We took our boys to the water park at the beach yesterday. The cancer institute would have been a little disappointed in our decision. A balmy 35 degrees Celsius blanketed the beach front in bright sunlight and the wind disappointed by not even stirring the leaves on branches. We did however coat our offspring in litres of sunscreen and insist on sun vests. All that taken into account, they had an absolute blast.

I stuck with our youngest for much of the hour that we spent in this world of rushing water. Yes, all three slides were working! As you may well imagine, I was the oldest participant in the activities. For some reason, perhaps my youthful countenance, I seemed to fit in with the rest of the revellers even though I was twice their height. Conversations ranged unabated and seemingly undiluted even with this pesky adult in attendance.

I learnt some interesting stuff.

A number of eight year olds were discussing girlfriends. I thought that it may be an interesting conversation to listen to and I was not disappointed. One of the boys proudly told his mates that he had dumped his girlfriend. I am pretty sure that they have no real concept of what a relationship involves. Either way this chap was proud of his achievement. If I had to get all psychological, I would say that he was posturing excessively to compensate for his bad squint! I was almost impressed myself. Not bad to have already had your first girlfriend at eight and have all your friends look at you in amazement and wonder. Another youngster asked him how he did it. He replied that it was so simple, as all he did was tell her that she was dumped. This statement was answered by a group of eight year old heads nodding in unison. The message was clear, this pesky girl situation can be simply resolved by uttering a couple of words.

I felt a little old at that point and could not stop myself asking the question, ‘but is that nice?’ Hardly a well phrased question, but I was reliably informed that this is how it is done, so obviously there is no problem. I resolved to keep the rest of my old fashioned thoughts to myself.

It was interesting to learn that my son at seven is exposed to some very interesting discussions. Knowing that I am not having these discussions with him means that I have not yet cracked that elusive father son relationship that I have been looking for.

This morning I collected all of the parent handbooks on sex that we seem to have collected. It is way past time for me to learn some stuff. I am also going to spend more one on one time with my sons to ensure that we start talking about all of the stuff that is going on in their lives as well as the stuff that they are just talking about.

I think I am going to learn a lot more now!!