Will You Marry Me?

Hannah came home today and told me that a boy at school told her a secret and that she promised not to tell anyone.  I asked her what it was and she said she couldn't tell me.  I dropped it because I know my girl and I knew she wouldn't be able to hold it in for too long. 

About an hour later, she muted the TV and said we needed to talk.  I closed my laptop and gave her my full attention.  She said, "How do you ask someone out?"  I said, "You mean, like out as in boyfriend/girlfriend?" And she said yes.  I asked her who the lucky boy was and she revealed that it was the boy who had told her the secret.  I asked if his secret had anything to do with her question and she said yes.  Then she said, "I guess I can tell you because you are my mom.  He whispered to me that he is going to marry me when he grows up and then he ran away.  I didn't have a chance to tell him that we should date first."  Wow.  2nd grade and she is already talking dating and marriage.  I asked her if she liked him or if she was just responding to his secret.  She admitted then that she really just likes him as a friend for now but that after he told her he wanted to marry her she wasn't sure.  So, I told her that if she didn't really like him in that way it would be best to just remain friends.  I also passed along some advice that my dad told me when I was a kid.  I told her that if anyone ever confesses that they like her or ask her out and she doesn't want to be their girlfriend to never ever make fun of them or make them feel silly about revealing their feelings.  I explained that getting up the nerve to ask someone out is hard and that it is OK to not feel the same way but to never make them feel like an idiot for having those feelings.

Will they wind up boyfriend and girlfriend?  Who knows?  I think the best part is that she talked to me about it and really values my opinion.  It made me so happy that she trusted me enough to talk about something that she was confused and nervous about.  But, I will admit when she revealed that a boy that liked her last year pulled down his pants on the bus to show her his underwear and that they were Star Wars and the light sabers covered his private part, I was left wishing she had kept that tid-bit to herself.  Lord only knows what else she hasn't told!