How Soon Is Too Soon?

My oldest DD is 9. She informed me Valentine’s Day that she has a boyfriend. I didn’t think anything of it, since she’s in the 4th grade and she has claimed boyfriend before…even if the little boy didn’t know he was her boyfriend, she still said he was. LOL

But this time it seems that this little boy actually IS her boyfriend. He bought her a stuffed animal that says “Our First Valentine” on it (I feel like crap since she didn’t get him anything…how rude) and to say her daddy didn’t like it is putting it midly.

The Boyfriend called our house today…asked for her and I handed her the phone. No problem. Little boys have called our house before and she’s talked to them. No problem. But when she announced, after finishing her homework, that she had to call him back because she told him she would…daddy said nope.

I don’t understand this. I’ve always teased at how daddy wasn’t gonna make it through the dating years, but I never knew we would have a problem NOW.

I don’t see anything wrong in her talking on the phone to a “boyfriend” or just a boy that’s a friend. But daddy thinks it’s the “beginning of the end”. He thinks she’s too young to be talking to boys.

I understand where he’s coming from, but c’mon! She’s NINE! It’s not like they are going on dates, or visiting each others house, or anything like that. It’s a phone conversation.

The way I see it is, let’s not borrow trouble. We’ll have enough to deal with when she gets to the dating stage. And I firmly believe that if you make a big deal out of things like this…it just makes them want to do whatever it is you’re making a big deal out of that much more.

Setting *some* limits is fine. But this, to me, is going a little too far and being a little too strict. But that’s just me.

*sigh*