I try to go for a walk every day.  Usually, it’s at night, as late as the middle of the night.  Last Tuesday I took my walk at about 8:30PM and I invited my oldest with me.  There is a lot on his plate and I wanted him to have the chance to talk, which he did.

One of the first things that came up was girls,

*gulp*

It turns out there is a girl on his bus that he has his eye on and another girl in his class figured it out and told bus girl and basically asked her out for my boy without consulting if my boy actually wanted to go out with her.

Follow all that?

Ok.  The hitch of for the feminine plotting is that at almost 12, he has no interest in dating anyone.  Which thank you whatever power is watching over me.

So I taught him the first white lie of the night: “My mom won’t let me.”

In this case it’s, “My mom won’t let me date yet, but you can come over to my house and play sometimes if you want.”

He is out of the dating hot seat without hurting her feelings and without feeling pressure to be older than his 12 years.  Because dear God what the hell are 12-year-olds doing dating?

As the conversation continued I basically gave him the thumbs up to blame me saying no on any situation he didn’t want involved in.

That white lie becomes truth and changes to “My mom will kill me, have you MET her.” when it comes to drugs and alcohol.

Then I, of course, told him I’d rather have him be truthful to be when he’s older and experimenting with beer at parties.  As long as he drinks responsibly, I’ll be far happier over the “I need a ride home” phone call than the “He should have gotten a ride home” house call.

I’d say he’s years away from there, but apparently not.  I’m just lucky (is this lucky?) that the situation with his aunt has taught him to be respectful of alcohol.  I don’t want him to fear it, I just need him to drink responsibly.

It was a good walk and talk.