My first-born turned 11 today and I’m amazed at how quickly he’s grown. Almost like I’m going through a denial stage, my mind keeps going back to an unnerving chat I had with his friends last Saturday.
Like almost every weekend, he had some friends over and they did what pre-teen boys do when they gather – they socialize while being simultaneously busy with whatever electronic gadget they were holding. While each boy was seemingly engrossed in a Gameboy, Playstation or cell phone, his friends asked me why Enzo doesn’t have his own Yahoo Messenger account yet.
Since they sounded like it was imperative that my son gets on YM soon or his social life is doomed, I had to ask him if many of his classmates already had their own accounts. He answered in exasperation with his characteristic eyeball-rolling: “Mom, everyone on my school bus is on YM!”
I couldn’t help my curiosity, I just had to ask what seemed to me was a logical follow-up question at that time: “Are any of you guys on Friendster too?”
Khalil, a very opinionated 10-year-old, replied: “No, because I have a friend who said the girls there kept hitting on him.”
And that shut me up for the rest of the afternoon.
