A few weeks ago Mr T noticed something unusual. James was waiting in the school playground for the doors to open with his Dad and Lily, he asked if he could go play with his friends, but a few moments later he turned around and said, “I think I will go stand over here instead”, and went to go stand in the corner.
Mr T was concerned by his change in behaviour and thought that someone or something might have upset him, but when he looked in the same direction, there was only one child (and her parent), a girl from his class.
“Are you okay?” said Mr T, James said he was okay, but he said he just wanted to stand in the corner.
“Why” asked Mr T, James didn’t say anything, but he looked in the direction of the little girl.
“Why don’t you go say hello?” said Mr T
James ran over to Mr T and shook his head. He tried to hide behind his dad, and didn’t want to say Hi.
Usually James is a confident friendly little boy, and he has 3 younger sisters so he is definitely used to girls! This shyness is a side to him we havent seen before.
We know James is friends and has always liked this girl in his class and she is the only girl he has mentioned. We did spend some time over the summer asking him if he had a girlfriend, he went through a phase where he was anti-girl, so this teased him but he did enjoy the attention. One afternoon before Christmas a family member asked him if he had a girlfriend, I smiled and said her name, and he burst into tears. He has never reacted like that before, we thought he was overtired, but I’ve not mentioned it since.
When James arrived home after school that evening, we asked him about it. I said it was okay to be friends with girls and I asked if she made his tummy feel a bit funny, he said yes but that he didn’t want to talk about it, so we respected his feelings and changed the subject.
I know that at 6 years old, I have at least another 8 years (or longer, I can always hope!) before he enters the world of girlfriends, but I don’t think I expected him to like a girl just yet! As his mum, I fully expected to be the only female in his life for at least 12 years!
I think it’s really sweet and she’s is a beautiful, well-mannered, funny and smart little girl, I hope his future choices are this good…
It has got me thinking about how I would feel if a little boy felt this way about my girls, and I wonder if I will spot any boys hiding from Lily in the playground in the next few years.
I am linking up with the lovely Katie from MummyDaddyMe for #TheOrdinaryMoments
