Isn't Sixth Grade too Young for Girl stuff?

People tell me how quickly kids grow up. Random strangers always tell me to enjoy it while it lasts. Those people don't know what they are talking about. That is what I thought.

Ethan started sixth grade this year. At his school, sixth grade is middle school, "The Academy." This is a big deal for him - he gets to go to different classes, have a locker, you know good junior high stuff.

This also means his first school dance. It seems too soon. Then I remembered my first junior high school dance, and I wasn't worried. It was mostly everyone standing along the wall and only the brave few (or crazy) danced. Certainly, no one slow danced.

Ethan was excited about the dance but a little worried. You can tell he was nervous. It also didn't help that a girl had told him she liked him that day at lunch.

What I particularly love about this is that Ethan is the one who told me. I love that he can talk to me about this stuff because at his age, there was no way in hell I would talk to my parents about boy stuff.

Ethan casually tells me he is nervous about the dance because a certain girl might want to dance. Now Ethan has a group of four friends that hang out together - two boys, Ethan, and a girl we will call K. The boys regularly spend the night at each others' houses. K comes to birthday parties and hangs out at school.

We have all known that Ethan and K like each other for sometime (K's mom and I joke about it), but the kids had never acknowledged it. On this particular Friday, one of Ethan's friends was pressuring K to tell Ethan about her feelings. Finally, she gave in and the exchange went like this:

K: Ethan, you know I like you, right?
Ethan: Yes, but just as friends, right?
K: Um, sure. I didn't want to tell you, but W was pressuring me.
Ethan: okay

Yes, that is it. When I told Ethan K liked him as more than a friend, his response floored me.
"I know mom, but if I told her I like her too, then things would just be awkward between us. If I said I didn't like her, we wouldn't be friends anymore."

This kid is way too insightful to how relationships work, so I could understand his nervousness about the dance.

I take him and his friend to the dance that night. I told him to have fun and not be afraid to dance. In fact, I bribed him. I told him I would pay him $5 if he danced. I shouldn't have because the school plays games to get the kids to dance. They do an activity called Cinderella where the girls put one of their shoes in a pile and the boy who picks the shoe dances with the girl that owns it.

Four hours later when I picked Ethan up, he told me that he danced because his friends decided they didn't want to be the only weird kids standing on the wall. He danced four times to slow songs. His friends arranged to have him and K dance three of those times by switching partners or rigging games. Ethan can't wait for the next dance.

Old people were right. They grow up too fast. I am so not ready.