An Introduction to Legs

Oh, the drama that is the 5th grade. Mister has a friend that he's been hanging out with for about 3 years now. Let's call her Legs, cause she stands about 2 feet over him, as do most girls at this age. So, Legs and Mister have been inseparable most of the 3 years and have always been in the same class. You can usually find them sitting together on field trips and chatting after school. In all this blissful friendship, I lost sight of something very apparent...Legs is a girl. I know you're probably saying, "duh" or "so what?" But this fact, I have found, makes a difference. Boys are pretty constant. Unless they steal something from each other, beat each other up, or any other major conflict occurs, they are friends. But girls, they have moods.

I remember being in elementary school and knowing that just because a certain girl is my friend on Friday doesn't guarantee that she'll like me on Monday. Girls are finicky and emotional, not always constant. Unfortunately, Mister is experiencing the same thing. After H dropped off the kids at school this morning, he informed me that Legs was in front of the school with another girl and seemed to purposely avoid Mister by putting up her hood and not looking his way. This breaks my heart. I know what a sweet, tenderhearted kid he is (no, it's not just because I'm biased). I briefly felt upset toward Legs, but soon remembered that that's how it is at this age. As in times before, whatever the problem is, it will blow over and they'll be hanging out again in a week. When this happens, all I can do is make sure he knows that things will be fine and encourage him to hang out with others until this blows over. I wish I could tell him what I figured out pretty early in elementary school. Having grown up with my brother, I had a low tolerance for girly moodiness and silly games. So, if they decided I wasn't going to be their friend that day, I just moved on to play with someone else. By doing that, I weeded out a lot of drama from my life and found some real friends.

While I know this will take care of itself, it does make me realize though that, if they remain friends, it will only get more complicated with age and hormones. Heaven help us.