tales from the kid-side of life

[mickeym]

Friday night found Matthew and I watching a movie, and dinking around online, as we do. He was chatting with a friend through Myspace (or maybe FB, I dunno), and I was mostly ignoring him, as I do, because it's usually safer that way. For my sanity, that is.

Anyway, he says to me, "how do you spell 'finger'?" -- and this is common enough, him asking me how to spell something or other while he's doing a chat. So I spelled it for him and went back to what I was doing...and a few minutes later he says, "how do you spell 'penetration'?" And I started to spell it, then looked up at him and said "what the hell are you chatting about?" He gets this grin on his face, and I said, "Never mind, I really don't want to know," and finished spelling the word for him. He finishes typing it out, then says, "my friend Chris had some questions about sex."

Oy VEY. I said, "he couldn't ask his parents?" Matthew says no, he doesn't feel comfortable with that. *headdesk* Then he says to me, "how come most of my friends are like that, and I'm not? I can ask you anything." I told him I'm the exception to the rule with regards to that -- unfortunately. But I guess yay Chris feels he can ask Matthew, and I know Matthew's information is right. Right? *facepalm*

So later Friday night (it was a busy night, convo-wise, in our house) Matthew says, out of the blue, "Mallory's birthday is at the end of August." (Mallory being his girlfriend, and long-lasting crush of about three years, now.) So I said, "okay? That's good. And?"

"And," he says, "I'm going to get her a promise ring for her birthday."

O_O

I gaped at him for a minute or ten, then asked him if he knows what a promise ring IS -- and was kind of floored when he did, more-or-less -- and then said no way in hell is he giving a 15yr old girl ("she'll be sixteen on her birthday, mom," -- okay, that doesn't help) a promise ring when HE'S ONLY 15 HIMSELF. Plus, a sophomore in high school. Plus, no job for money to buy said ring, and they've only been "dating" (i.e., hold hands in the hall and sit together at lunch) for a couple of months, and OH YEAH, HER MOM DOESN'T LIKE HIM AND WON'T EVEN ALLOW THEM TO TALK ON THE PHONE OR TEXT.

I didn't shout any of that AT him, but it was a close thing.

Seriously, though, for reasons unknown (to us, at least), Mallory's mom apparently doesn't like Matthew. He says she was a substitute teacher a couple of times for his class when he was in middle school. I told him that if he's ever going to have a real relationship of any sort with Mallory -- never mind giving her a freakin' promise ring! -- he's going to have to start with meeting with her mom and finding out what it is that's the issue here.

Then he says to me, "well, she could just not show her mom the ring."

*facepalm and headdesk TO ETERNITY*

Not an option, says me, and the subject is closed for further discussion until he's at least talked to Mallory's mom/parents. After that, then we'll take things one step at a time.

Jesus.

And on top of all of that, Matthew came upstairs a little while ago and told me his dad called, and Doug's apparently planning ('might') go to Nashville this coming holiday weekend, to visit his brother; if he does, he's planning ('might') to spend a day with Matthew. I asked when, and Matthew says, "this coming weekend, mom, I just told you that." I said do we know which DAY of this coming weekend? No, he says, because dad doesn't know for sure if he's going yet.

On the one hand, I'm all in favor of Doug visiting Matthew whenever possible (we're holding steady at one time/year so far) and doing it here, in Matthew's environment is a definite bonus. But, geez. Guess it's a good thing I didn't have any plans to be anywhere, isn't it?