What’s Next?

This seemed cute at the time,
but I think the colonists had the right idea!

It was bound to happen. Even with the plan in place that you have to be 16 to date, I held out hope that it would be a little longer before that wall would tumble down. On Saturday night I was informed that the wall had toppled, one of Aly's classmates who had been making random text contact with her here and there came to her and asked to "go out" with her. When Aly (who turned 16 in July) was telling me this, I listened calmly and asked "So when are you going to go out?

 "Moooommmm they are not going OUT, they are GOING OUT!" Avery said. "Oh", I replied finally getting the subtle difference. The kid, does not want to come and take my daughter anywhere, he wants to be her one and only date for a long time. This is what was once called, "going steady" back in the day. Just for the record, I hate the phrase back in the day it reminds me of when kids say "in the olden days". It just makes me feel old and I do not like that AT all. Anyway, let me focus here. I was happy for Aly, she had shown an interest in this guy for a while and I was happy that he had finally manned up and made his move. However, this means we are in some new territory and we have to set some ground rules.
When she asked if she could do a little shopping with him last night, I thought why not no biggie. I was going to be out with a friend for a little while, but this was their first official time out together and they were just going a mile from the house, what can it hurt? So, off I went cautioning Aly that he was not allowed in the house while I was gone. When my friend was dropping me off back at home, I saw the new boyfriend's truck running in my driveway and asked my ride to just drop me at the end of the drive. I ran and got my mail and headed into my house. I waited and waited and waited some more and there was no sign of Aly, so I decided I would call her cell phone to let her know that time was up, but she did not answer. Avery mean while was delighting in the fact that I was going to embarrass Aly, which honestly was not my goal, I just did not think having their date in his truck in my driveway was good form. I told Avery, "I am going to wait 5 minutes and then I am going to open the garage door and go out there!" Now Avery was even more hysterical with laughter at my attempt at parenting this situation. She honestly did not think I would do it. Fortunately, Aly came in at that point and I never had to flex those mommy muscles. I did however gently mention that I did not want any "Heavy Petting going on" which sent the girls into a fit of laughter. Apparently, I once again had slipped on my granny pants and used an out dated phrase. At that point I decided to pack up and regroup before having this important discussion again.

 I do not know what will happen next with them "going out", but I do know that I am going to have very educated daughters who understand how important they are. They need to know that they are in charge of their bodies and that they can take their time as they step into a relationship. They already know my motto "Men are just dessert". I tell them all of the time that they have to be who they want to be and then add the man. They cannot let the man be the main course and lose themselves in his life and his goals and his dreams that is a recipe for disaster for everyone. Mark and I try to model to the girls a relationship that empowers both of us, but I think they might still be too young to get it, so I will have some interesting car topics with my young ladies in the weeks to come. I figure if I talk with both of them now, I just may circumvent this situation in a year and a half when Avery turns sixteen. Oh, Lord what's next?