I knew this day would one come. I also knew that I wouldn’t be ready for it.
A couple of weeks ago, The Boy came into the house after a hard afternoon of playing with the 
neighbors’ kids. He had a bit of information for me that he couldn’t wait to get off of his chest. He came to me rather nonchalantly (yet I could tell he was dying to spit it out) and said,
“A boy asked Bae for her phone number.”
“A WHAT?” I asked.
“A boy,” he said again.
I transformed from dad to CIA interrogator pulling out the water-boarding equipment. Then I asked a really dumb question- “Why?”
“I dunno,” he said as he ran off, satisfied that I was sufficiently floored by this revelation.
My daughter is beautiful, smart, and funny. I knew that someone other than me would also see the same characteristics in her. Intellectually, I know that it is normal for boys to be interested in her and vice versa. I also realize that she is growing older and there is more of this to come. This is just the beginning.
I told my wife about The Boy’s shocking piece of news. Funny thing is, she was more horrified than I thought she would be. After all, she was a young girl once. I thought she would be the one trying to calm me down, but it was the other way around. She began peeping out of the window looking for the “little man”. I had to restrain her from going outside to get my daughter to commence with the grilling. Just to be clear, we weren’t upset or angry about this at all, but it is hard to imagine that our daughter is at the age where boys don’t think she has the cooties.
When Bae came into the house, I asked her is a boy asked for her number. She very casually said, “Yeah. No big deal.” “No big deal?” I thought. I remember being a boy at the age of twelve and the sheer depravity that would run through my mind from a) a lack of knowledge about the opposite sex and b) raw, uncontained hormones which I did not know how to control. “It’s a VERY big deal,” I said to myself (but not to her).
After talking to Bae and realizing that it really wasn’t a big deal to her, Adi and I had to take a moment to reset. We believe that we have instilled good core values in both of our children. They are both children of faith and have learned their lessons well. Even still, the lessons continue. Even for mom and dad. We need to understand that the worst thing we can do is overreact to these situations as they develop. We need to foster, as we always have, and environment where the kids know they can talk to us about anything without fear of us blowing something perfectly natural out of proportion simply because the adults aren’t ready for it. Giving her number to a boy really isn’t a big deal. It’s how we handle her budding adolescence as a family that matters. Open and honest communication. Teaching the kids how to handle these situations in a godly manner as they arise. Continuing to teach them that the most important thing they possess is their self-worth and not to let anyone take that away from them. As for the boy who made the advance…
Well, that’s why I bought a shotgun. 
Mr. Man
