His First Kiss

The other day, the mother of one of LR's classmates stopped me in the school hallway. Her daughter, J, is easily the prettiest girl in his class (you'll see the relevance in a minute. Trust me). She said that J told her "I kissed LR all over his face today!" "Oh?" "Yeah. He was just so adorable that I couldn't stand it. I just had to eat him all up!"

Now, I've been willing to put up with his eye-rolling and his long drawn out "okays" into which he inserts about thirty five syllables when he's agreeing to do something he doesn't want to do. But this? I really didn't think I'd be having PDA (Public Display of Affection) problems for at least ten years!

I suppose I should count myself lucky. I read an article a while back about a Connecticut middle school that adopted a zero-tolerance policy regarding touching of any kind whatsoever. And, yes, this does include handshakes, high-fives, and hugs (among many others). What kind of a person decides that the answer to one or two physical altercations is to prohibit touching of any kind? It's like dropping a car from a hundred feet onto your lawn because there's a bug you want to get rid of. And these are the kinds of people we have teaching our children.

As an aside, my wife was talking to one of the rabbis at our son's preschool last year, about how good it was that LR just had "something" that makes almost everyone like him and be happy to see him. And the rabbi said that "I know I can't - it's not appropriate - but he's just so sweet and adorable I always want to give him a big hug when I see him." That statement is one of the saddest commentaries on our current society that I've ever seen.

But, back to the point (I think I had a point). I think we're very lucky that whatever challenges LR may have to face, at least he will always have his sunny smile and disposition to help him get through them. After all, an endorsement of some twenty-odd kisses from the prettiest girl in his class has to count for something.