FIRST DATE

I don't think I can even remember my first date. Can you? Was is with a group of friends or just the two of you? Who was your first boyfriend/girlfriend? Do you ever talk to them, or did you really love them and are happily married now? These questions come to mind as Joe (14) asks me to take him to the movies on Friday to meet his girlfriend and some of their friends. Scary !! This girl has turned my son (who can not say more than two words at a time) into the boy that has a phone attached to his ear 24/7. He can't tell me anything about his day but can talk to her for hours in the evening. It has happened, he is a teenager with a girlfriend. And it is very scary in the times we live in. Have you read the newspapers or listened to the news. A first date dilemma kiss or not to kiss is not what these kids are thinking about. I am having trouble enough adjusting to the fact that my little boy has another female in his life. Is he going to get his heart broken or will he be doing the breaking of the hearts. Do I buy him condoms or keep teaching him to wait and hope that he makes the right choice? How much do I talk to him about the
S E X word? How much does he know? Or can he tell me things that will make me blush? Someone at work has told me that she is going to be a grandmother and her son is a senior in high school. I do not want to be a grandmother, I am still trying to raise my kids. Fear it takes over your thoughts during the moment when you hear "mom, I have a date can you take me and pick me up" What to do? I hope and pray that the things we as parents have said over and over again to our children some of it has actually sunk into their heads somewhere. The fact that disease and babies are things you want to stay away from have been shown to be an actual threat and not something they use as a scare ploy in health class. And what kind of girl is this girlfriend? What kind of home does she come from, what are her parents like and what have they told her? Wait or have they gone our and put their daughter on birth control for just in case. These are the things that ran past my mind last night as my son and I tried to pick out a movie for him to go see tonight on his date. Or maybe I am over thinking the whole thing and he sees it as a group of friends getting together and just hanging out. I even have thought about going and watching from a few seats behind them. But that is not the kind of parent I want to be. So my hope that my son knows our views and have learned from them. Oh the days of playing with hot wheels and thinking girls have cutties.