S here; M has been watching a number of the Young Indiana Jones episodes lately. Two days ago, he watched one in which a very young Catherine Zeta-Jones flings off her burka to do some belly-dancing. M got a big grin on his face at that point. I am so not ready for this stage.
Yesterday he watched an episode in which Indy proposes marriage to someone, and we started discussing the fact that Indy seems to fall in love with a different woman in every single episode. E and I both agreed this was not a good approach to life, and I told M, “I hope someday that you have a happy, long-term, monogamous relationship just like E and I do.”
M got a rather reluctant expression on his face. “Does it have to be monogamous?” he asked us.
OK, we can do the liberal-open-minded thing. We explained that as long as he and his partner both agreed not to be monogamous, that was acceptable, but that it wasn’t right for one person to do so and keep it a secret from the other.
At the point M looked pretty confused. It finally occurred to me to back up and ask, “Do you know what ‘monogamous’ means?”
Turned out he thought it meant gay or lesbian. Ah, that explains his reluctance and confusion! We did a quick run-through of definitions for “monogamous,” “homosexual,” and “heterosexual,” and I reassured him that he was perfectly free to have heterosexual relationships, except for the fact that he is still not-quite-12 and too young to be having significant relationships with anyone. So he is now less confused, and his preteen hormones are back to thinking happily about Catherine Zeta-Jones.
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