On dating

Today I was helping Chinnu put on a skirt for school. Since I am sick and was not rushing like a mad woman, I noticed something. The baby fat was completely and totally gone. And in it's place were little curves. My 6 year old has curves! When did she grow up? My shocked mind fast forwarded to a few years ahead. The girl is a total girl at 6 - loves to dress up etc. What would happen when she became a teenager in a paltry 7 more years?

To add to the general shock, bits of recent conversations came to mind:

Amma how did you and appa decide to get married?d
Amma I'm going to get married when I'm 30.
Me: Why 30?
Because R anna is almost 30 and is looking to get married.

This kind of banter seemed cute at the time - now comes the uncomfortable realization that it's going to start in a few years - those feelings unleashed by the onset of puberty and raging hormones. Remember those days, I asked myself.

I was brought up in what would now be considered a pretty "conservative" manner. I went to an all girls school and dating was not discussed. I dealt with my share of raging hormones and the result was a conviction that everyone must date. Dating, I was convinced, was the cure for the sexually repressed. It would solve many social evils such rape, incest, pedophilia, and would also reduce encounters of the Shady kind between members of the opposite sex (that usually got the parties into the very trouble they wanted to avoid - being discovered). Was it so hard for our wise elders to comprehend that boys and girls grow up and in the process sexuality will come a knocking and they will respond in some way? How is it possible that a conservative society that frowned upon any kind of non-legalized romantic liaison between boys and girls expected married couples to start procreating asap? Thus I raved with all my twenty something indignation and self-righteousness that is the hallmark of the young.

Well, fast forward to today when I am no longer twenty something and am drowning in the angst of seeing my offspring becoming a young girl. Am I going to be comfortable about Chinnu dating? Of course (says the me I want to be). The other me (that nagging possessive me) is cringing. What if some idiot boy breaks her heart? What if I don't approve of who she dates? Will she keep her head screwed on tight? Will she grow from it? Will she love me as much? Will she stop needing me? But despite all these nagging questions, I am sure of one thing - I will never ever be negative about this. I will make sure that I respect her as a growing woman and never be a thorn in her her quest for love, puppy or otherwise.