Meeting my daughter's boyfriend

Wait, what? She's fifteen already? I thought she was two yesterday!

Ugh, I finally have to face the facts. My little girl is not a little girl anymore. If I wasn't such an over-protective mom, I'd post her beautiful face all over my blog to show her off. But I am so you don't get to see her. And, no I'm not biased. If my kids were ugly I'd say so.

Last weekend Kelly wanted to go bowling with some friends- which included her boyfriend. She'd met Frankie through a mutual friend at Busch Gardens. They mostly talk, well, text and have hung out at Busch Gardens at few times but I hadn't met him yet. When I picked her up from bowling she and Frankie walked out holding hands. I'm okay with that, anything else- not so much. She got in the car and after she introduced me, he reached over her to shake my hand. Points scored.

I didn't want to leave him there by himself so we waited a few minutes until his parents showed up. The more we chatted the more I liked him. I honestly believed him when he told me he didn't drink, smoke, or do drugs....something Kelly's last boy she liked couldn't have said honestly, though he was a sweet kid. More points. When Frankie's parents drove up he told them to park so they could meet me. In the thirty seconds we stood there and talked I liked them. More points adding up. It was great to meet a couple that was still married and obviously involved in their son's life- Mom got out of the van and was hugging on her poor embarrassed son (loved it!). He got extra points for enduring Mommy and not shoving her off like some kids would do.

I don't think I'm really ready for all of this boyfriend stuff but Kelly is fifteen so I kind of have to be. I've been pleasantly surprised that she hasn't had a boyfriend until about 7 months ago. I started a little earlier than Kelly and had a string of boyfriends that my parents did NOT like...some my mom were even afraid of! Oh, the rebellious years. I was the baby though and my two older sisters were the ones who helped pave the road for me. By the time I started having boyfriends it wasn't that big of a deal for my parents. Kelly is the oldest. I'm sure by the time her three year old sister, Maisie, starts dating Kelly will be annoyed at how relaxed we are. Someone has to break the mold, though, and Kelly has that unfortunate job.

In Kelly's eyes, Frankie is her fourth boyfriend. In mine, it's her first. I never met the two in the middle and the first, well, that was the trial period. This kid, is sweet, courteous, intelligent, grounded, and very easy to get along with. I don't know how this came up in the conversation but the fact that his mom and I both enjoy going out and taking long candle-lit baths are big giant checks in my book!

Overall, meeting my daughter's boyfriend was a breeze. I'm so glad that she's not one of those girls that thinks she's going to marry every boy she dates. She has a couple of friends like that and thinks they are stupid . Too many times, girls fall head over heels and get so caught up in love and romance not paying attention to the fact that most high school couples don't wind up getting married. Thank goodness for small blessings. Apparently I have done something right in raising my daughter. Yay!

Disclaimer- my editor left for Europe today so my apologies for any spelling, grammatical errors or severe ADD moments. Apparently I pay her much better than I pay myself since this is her third vacation this year...while I've had none! Ha, actually I'm lucky to have an editor who works for free.