Today I talked to a mom about her son who is 9 years old. He was at the Y and a little girl came up to him and said “do you have a girlfriend?”
He answered plainly, “No.”
“I’ll be your girlfriend.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Yes, I will. YES, I WILL!” the girl yelled.
The boy walked away in wonder.
I saw a 10 year old girl in a store. An older teenage girl was teasing her. “Who’s your boyfriend? Who’s your boyfriend? I know you like someone. Tell me, tell me.”
I felt so sad for this little girl. What a pressure at that age! (at any age for that matter) She doesn’t need a boyfriend. She is being taught that her value and worth is dependant on who is her boyfriend.
When I was a young mother I thought this kind of teasing was cute and harmless. Then I realized what message it was sending. “You are supposed to have a boyfriend. Something must be wrong with you if you don’t.”
If girls could see themselves as God sees them, care more about what God thinks than anyone else, they wouldn’t think they needed a boyfriend. "...for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:marvellous are thy works..." Ps 139:14
What is cute about two 10 year olds ‘going steady’? If they are going steady at 10, kissing is right around the corner. And then what is that girl going to have to do to keep her guy.
Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 1 Tim 4:12
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It just really pains me to hear talk like this at such a young age. My daughter had such a good friend in her same-age neighbor until about age 9, when this stuff started happening--when the neighbor girl was always talking about "her boyfriend," etc. My daughter is still so far away from that even a few years later!
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