on the subject of dating & college

Little Man told his sister that his bestfriend's brother is in love with her and wants to marry her.  The look on her face was priceless because the boy looks like a gelfling from Dark Crystal and his older brother, who is friends with Little Man, has bad hair and yellow teeth.  Pretty good sign that the younger brother will follow in his older brother's footsteps. Proud mama moment for me that my girl is already showing discriminating taste towards men at 5 years old.  So, in response to her crinkled up little face and the "Aw, jeez" comment, I tell her that she's way too young to be marrying anyone and not to worry about it.

Well, Princess decides to inform me that she is indeed old enough to get married because she's a big girl.  I had to break it to her that she's too little and she has to be my size before she can even begin dating...in fact, I started on the whole, "you will be 16 before you even go on your first date" rule.  Adorable little one that she is, thought she'd try out her hand at negotiation, since it works out so well for Little Man, that she flat out says, "no mom, 17!"........DEAL!  I'll take it... no problem.  ;)  she was so proud to bend me in her direction of thinking and I secretly enjoyed the fact that she screwed herself without realizing it and I wasn't about to point out the mistake. 

At this time, Little Man decides to chime into the conversation and claim that he's not dating until he's 19.  Think the poor kid thought that by claiming an age higher than his sister, he'd win me over more...after all, I was ecstatic that she said she wasn't dating until she was 17, so by saying 19, how happy would I be?  Again, I said, "DEAL!"  In fact, I told them both that if they wanted to wait on dating until after they completed high school and got into college, I'd be fine with that completely.

Well, this set off a whole new conversation that we seem to go back to over and over again.  Little Man does not want to go away to college because he doesn't want to leave me.  Now, you all know me, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my kids and never want them to leave, but because I LOVE them SOOOO much, I know that their leaving the nest someday is the best thing for them.  So, I told them both, that by the time they're out of high school, in fact, probably long before that time, they're going to be sick of me.  This they couldn't not believe...and for now, I'm going to enjoy how much they love me and adore me.  Because, I know damn well, that once hormones start flowing it's gonna be ugly!  :) these are my kids after all and they share my flair for the dramatic!

So, Little Man and the Princess both ask if they'll have any fun in college.  My boy, well, I'm sure he's going to have more than enough fun.  The Princess...well, my only goal is to keep her off Girls Gone Wild and out of working at Hooters for drinking money.   So, I tell them, "yes, you will have fun...you will meet amazing new friends and have memorable experiences that will last your entire life"...

Kind of makes me sad that we're talking about all this now and they're only 7 and 5... so much else in between now and then to tackle and enjoy.  While I can't wait for it to happen, I definitely would like to go back to when they were babies, sitting quietly with them and staring at their beautiful and perfect little faces looking up at me while they eat and sleep.