We are driving along the road, nothing much is really going on, we are on the way home from school. Small Sprog has a noisy friend in the back of the car and I have more or less switched off to their chat until I hear him say "Don't lick the windows of the car though, they taste awful" and then, just as I am about to ask how he could possible know that, his 15 year old sister agrees with him "Yes" She says "They taste disgusting"
"There's only one way you'd know that!" I shout "Only very strange people lick the inside of car windows!"
"I didn't mean to lick them" He says "I just did it accidentally while I was asleep"
Do I look that stupid?!
Meanwhile, as I write, Small Sprogs girlfriends mother is texting me about her distraught daughter who is in tears because she thinks my son has 'dumped' her.( Do I need to remind you that they are only 11 years old?) I text back, trying to reassure her that although he is a bloke (sorry male readers), which means he has no idea about what is going on, he really has a kind heart and wouldn't upset her intentionally. I press 'send' with my fingers crossed, mostly I think I know him but sometimes I reckon there's a whole 'other side'! Her mother texts back: I did tell her that boys take about 3 months longer than girls to notice that anything's wrong!
3 months, I muse, as quick as that?...
3 months - that's lightning reactions for most blokes. ;-)
ReplyDeleteOnly three months? That's good going. Unfortunately men can still be amazingly emotionally illiterate. Including myself no doubt. From what I can gather, girls are still encouraged to be emotionally sensitive while it's okay for boys to be blind to all that "personal stuff".
ReplyDeleteI think I will have worked out a comment by March. Maybe.
ReplyDeleteWould you really want to go through all these traumas of being an adolescent child again? I know I wouldn't and it goes on & on as they get older too.
ReplyDeleteAs for window licking. I think I missed out on my childhood because I can't ever remember doing that! LOL!
Maggie X
Nuts in May
As a "bloke," I always get over being dumped by girl, by going round licking windows.
ReplyDeletewhen my son was a teenager my wife went on some course to do with dealing with boys in adolescence (to do with work)... anyway just before, during and a little while after puberty there is some issue in blokes brains that means they lose their sense of empathic sympathy - they just "don't get it"... It is similar I believe to what happens to dementia patients as well...
ReplyDeleteSo he simply didn't mean to upset her and even if it is pointed out he'll shrug as simply it will not compute in his head. We saw this with my son for a number of years
I'm taking notes my eldest (8) has just informed me he's got a girl friend....(gulp!)
ReplyDeleteI'd love to know the sentence that preceded 'but don't lick the windows'. On the bf/gf thing I am starting to worry reading this as my baby is 11 in just 4 months! Will I be dealing with affairs of the heart next summer?
ReplyDeleteHey, Furtheron, that's a depressing thought that blokes are just programmed to lose their empathy. I refuse to believe that. I think boys simply aren't encouraged to be emotionally sensitive the way girls are. Parents, teachers, and family still habitually assume boys are emotional half-wits instead of telling them to shape up and communicate properly.
ReplyDeleteGf/bf at that age are sweet puppy loves; aren't they? It's good that you are in contact with her mom, but... um... isn't it between the kids if they are 'together or broken up'?
ReplyDeleteIs she going to call you super ticked when they do actually break up? Is she going to expect you to call her upset if Small Sprog winds up getting dumped?
Geez, they are kids. Let them work it out themselves.
Sounds like you have a very light grasp of it; I just wish she did too.
Cute, though I don't know what to say about licked windows.
...three months? Does that time frame grow with age? Just wondering.
;D
XOXOXO
Scarlett & Viaggiatore