Saturday, September 13, 2008

Conflicted...

My son is away at his first sleepover. Ever. It's eerie how quiet the house is - I took my daughter out for ice cream (because she was upset that her brother got to have a sleepover, so I wanted to do something special with her, too), and she collapsed in her bed as soon as the chocolate wore off. It's weird walking by his room and seeing his door open at 9:15 at night. Knowing he's not there brings that feeling... that empty feeling.

I'm not concerned about him being away from home - between the camper, tenting, and varying cabins in Maine he's an old pro at waking up in a different bedrooom. I'm quite certain that the family he's staying with is top-notch - this is my buddy Dave (mentioned in my Labor Day post). Dave's even got the ultimate in persuaders for good behavior - be good or go home...

Son G. has been itching for a sleepover for a while now; his friends have all been regaling him with stories of how cool it is, how much fun they have sleeping over someone else's house or entertaining a friend for the evening. I could hardly say "no", especially where everything fell into place this weekend, between Mrs. G. working the overnight - having one less child in the house drastically cuts the yelling! - and me taking Monday off (big shootin' event tomorrow + lots of guns to clean + many sick/personal days left to use before the end of November = Day Off For Gun Cleaning!).

So why am I conflicted? Well, he's sleeping over a girl's house...

I thought it would be at least another 8-10 years before he slept over a girl's house; and I certainly didn't expect to hear about it from him - or the girl's father... (Interesting side note: Dave referenced the "I'll be here, cleaning this gun" song. Wild to be on the other side of the table there...).

He sees her as a "cousin" - Dave's a close enough friend that they call him "uncle", so naturally his daughter would be my son's "cousin". They're friends in school as well - in fact, their desks are together.

In a way, it's kinda cute that he's young and innocent enough that he sees nothing wrong with having a sleepover at a girl's house. I'm sure I (and Dave) will feel differently in, oh, 7 or 8 years...

That is all.


4 comments:

Mulligan said...

i've heard that if you have a boy you only have to worry about 1 boy, but if you have a girl you have to worry about ALL the boys

:)

zeeke42 said...

Big shooting event you say?

One of my best friends when I was your son's age was a girl. The funniest story about it is from her birthday party at at maybe 9 or 10. For her birthday that year, her parents rented a limo and we rode around in it for a few hours.

I was the only boy among the party guests. My grandmother made some comment, which I understood at the time, but no longer remember, about the situation. My mom replied 'it's not an orgy', which I didn't get until years later.

Borepatch said...

It will be interesting if you have the "Cleaning this gun" talk with your boy. Get him thinking crossfire ....

;-)

Anonymous said...

So bringing up the Elvis song "Kissing Cousins" probably wouldn't ease your mind, now would it? *evil grin*