Kindergarten seems a bit early for young love and budding romance. At my house, it’s popping up like crazy. My oldest daughter is 5. We are already planning the iron bars for her bedroom window, getting a shotgun that can be strategically placed near the front door, and investing in cell phone trackers. We don’t dare make these jokes in front of her though.

It all started a couple of months ago. School had just barely started. I began my mundane chore of packing her lunch for the next day. As I unloaded the empty tupperware from the prior day, something else caught my eye. There was a shiny object hiding in the corner of her lunch box. It looked like an earring. I thought, “How odd? Melia doesn’t wear earrings.”

What spilled out onto my hand was a shiny little cubic zirconia stone. Definitely not one I had ever seen before! Naturally, I started asking questions.

Her nonchalant response? With a smile, “Oh, Liam gave me that!”

I let it go. Not a single joke or comment. I saved it for my husband when I showed him the gift later. Then I texted the photo to her teacher so she could point him out to me. After all, I needed to see this kid for myself. Know what we were up against.

The following week, I was at school with my youngest daughter (1). As we walked through her classroom, Liam took an interest in Sienna. He talked to her for a few minutes and asked all kinds of questions. Well, we apparently bonded because the following morning when I dropped Melia off after a doctor appointment, Liam was working near the door. He saw me and flashed a huge smile and fiercely waved like we were long lost best friends. It was adorable!

Then, he turned out to be quite the player (an adorable one at that).

Later that week as I picked Melia up from school, Liam shouted at me, “Where is the baby? Why didn’t you bring her in?” He was apparently quite disappointed that I hadn’t brought her for pick up. Melia’s teacher joked that he was infatuated with both of my girls. Lock them up now and throw away the key!

In reality, we don’t believe there was ever a budding Kindergarten romance. Young love was simply friendship. We try not to make a big deal of it, even if there is a budding romance. My husband and I agreed that one of the things we hated most when we were young was constantly being teased if every friend we had of the opposite sex was our boyfriend/girlfriend. So much so that we stopped sharing anything to avoid those annoying comments and conversations. This is something we hope to avoid with our own kids.

We want our girls to know that it’s normal for them to have friends of both sexes. We want them to feel comfortable talking about the people in their life, regardless of gender. The way we react to the small, insignificant things now sets the stage for how they will feel bringing up the real topics later. So as far as we’re concerned, young love is a welcome topic. It’s a natural part of growing up.

This doesn’t mean we won’t seriously consider the bars over the windows, the strategically placed gun case, or the cell trackers. It just means we save those conversations for later, when the girls aren’t around to hear them.

So last Friday when I picked Melia up from school, I didn’t even flinch when she proudly stated, “Isaiah loves me!” She then went on to explain he loved her “One hundred five percent!” Really?! Apparently he tells everyone he loves them. She says they “just freak out”.

I can honestly say they do “just freak out”. I read it all over my husband’s expression to me as she told him the exciting news. We are only 2-months into the school year. Is this for real? We never experienced this stuff with our son. Surely it’s not just a girl thing? Right?

Now, excuse me while I go start researching chastity belts! 😉