FIRST LOVE

Do you remember your first boyfriend/girlfriend? That feeling that they were the only one for you and that you would never love anyone else? I sure do. They were pretty intense feelings. Okay, it only lasted 4 months and when he broke up with me I cried for two days I think. It is now so funny to look back at it and at how silly the whole thing was. However, I am grown up now and have the life experience and maturity to look back and see it exactly for what it was.
Today though, as I helped a young friend struggle with his feelings with his first girlfriend, I had to remind myself that to him, these feelings were as serious as an adults. I couldn't make light of what he was going through or brush off the relationship by telling him, "Girlfriends come and go..." No, that would definately not have been a good way to handle it.
Sometimes, as adults and parents we tend not to take our children's experiences as serious as we should. Many of us have forgotten what it was like to be an adolescent, to struggle through the emotions without having the maturity to know how to handle it all. To them, the feelings are real and just as important in their world as our grown up feelings are in ours.
So all I could do was listen to him, share with him some of my own experiences in early relationships and encourage him to keep communicating to us his hurts and disappointments. Let him know that we were there for him whenever he needed to talk. I strongly believe that the most important thing we can offer our children is our constant love and respect. Let them know that no matter what, our love and support will always be there for them. Leave the door open for them to feel they can always come to us without us prejuding them.
They may make some bad choices along the way, they may stumble and fall, but we will always be there to help them back up to their feet and help point them in the right direction. Sometimes we have to make mistakes in life in order to learn and as long as we keeping learning in a positive way, as the kids always say to me then..'All is good.'