New Boy

T started talking to me again last night. We didn't discuss how the weekend went or any of that, nor did she study for her ACT, but she did ask me if she could date the boy she likes. (which is a good sign, in and of itself if you think about it)

I said, well, I needed to know what she meant by dating him... what changes if I say she can or can't date him? Or what changes if she does date him? She said didn't say much, other than it wasn't for anything physical and that she's cared about him for awhile. Then she said she wanted to read to me the letters he'd written to her over a year ago when they were both in the alternative school.

She even waited around while I worked (getting some work caught up from being out of the office for awhile in the afternoon), so she could read me the letters.

The letters were nice enough, though there was a little bit of interesting information to be gotten from them... apparently, said boy has had his own wild side and been a bit depressed, too. So, I asked her if he was doing better, and she said yes. I also told her that it is not in her best interest to date someone who doesn't have the same goals as she does.

This young man, who seems nice enough, didn't graduate HS. He will need to complete his GED in order to go into the military or to college. He did tell me that he wants to go to college. So, I told T that she needs to watch out and see if he makes movement toward those goals. Otherwise, if she does finish up and go to college... there might be some bad feelings between them sooner or later about their life differences. Maybe not. But, I wanted to make sure she thinks about these things before jumping into something at the age of 17. Right?

I did tell her it was OK for her to 'date' him. I will be keeping a close eye on what this means and what it turns into, though. You can be assured of that. I am the meanest Mommy, remember?!! ;-)

As for the other stuff, well, we'll have to get into that this week. I have not let her off the subject completely, I'm just giving us a little bit of breathing room from the upset this weekend.

Peace.