I knew it would happen eventually, but I’d hoped it wouldn’t be quite yet.  Sure, I knew Robbie had a “girlfriend”.  We’ve even gone through the mall finding the perfect piece of jewelry for her.  But, deep in my heart, I kind of hoped he would go back to playing with the boys on the playground, coming home covered in dirt.

Saturday, while we were swimming, Robbie let me know that he had kissed his girlfriend.  We were just floating in the water, when Robbie looked at me and said, “Mom, do you think I’ve kissed my girlfriend?”  I’ve learned that, typically, the answer to these questions is yes.  This was no exception.

“Oh, really?” I asked.  “And where did you kiss her?”

“On the cheek,” he replied, nonchalantly.

“Oh.  And what did she do then?”  Is it wrong that I kind of hoped she ran away, horrified that a boy had kissed her?  It’s not that I want my four-year-old’s heart broken.  It’s just that I don’t want him serious with a girl quite yet.

“She kissed me back.”  Well, this wasn’t going at all how I planned.

“Hmmm.”  I was stalling for time at the point.  How in the world do you respond to finding out that your four-year-old and his “girlfriend” are kissing each other, even if it is only on the cheek.  “And when did all this happen?”

“After the bus brought me back to school.  When we were playing on the playground,” Robbie told me.

“I see.  And what did your teachers say when you two kissed each other?”  Here, surely, I would be vindicated.  The teachers wouldn’t allow kissing on their watch.  Their plan had to have been thwarted.

“They didn’t see.  We went far away from them.”  Of course they did.  I have a child smart enough to have nailed down a girlfriend this early in life.  It only makes sense that he would be smart enough to plan to kiss her away from the eyes of his teachers.

As difficult as all of this was for me to hear, I’m glad he told me.  I love that he’s excited enough about something like kissing a girl on the cheek that I’m the first person he wants to tell.  And I suppose I should be thankful that I’ve raised a little boy who would rather sneak behind the slide to give a kiss than push a girl down and make her cry in front of his friends.  But, the last thing I expected to hear this afternoon when I got home from school and asked about his day was simply, “I kissed my girlfriend again today.”