Sorry to cut yesterday's story short but Peter had an appointment with the allergist and then I had errands to run and then school was over so we had guitar lessons and homework and then before I knew it, it was dinner time.
They finally called us to our table. Peter was looking at the kid's menu and since this is a wing joint, in addition to the typical mac and cheese, chicken fingers and grilled cheese, they also had wings on the kid's menu.
But instead of just calling these wings "plain", they called them "virgin" wings. Peter saw that and said, "Virgin? Of course, they're virgin! Chicken wings can't get married!" And then he laughed because, how ridiculous!
And I thought to myself, good segue way into the conversation we are going to have when we get home. I better jump right in.
"Well, virgin doesn't mean unmarried. It means something else and when we get home we are going to talk about that and I'm going to answer some other questions you've had lately."
A look of fear crossed his face. "Does this have anything to do with that baby book?" he questioned.
"It sure does," I answered.
The eye roll he gave me would have made any 14-year-old proud. He even grunted a little.
We managed to have a nice dinner. We talked about school and video games and his upcoming 10th birthday. And we stayed away from talking about chicken wings - virgin or otherwise.
But when we got home, I made him sit down at the kitchen table and I gave him the book.
He gave me another eye roll but he sat down. He kept his coat on and zipped up. He kept the hood pulled over his head and seemed to be using it as a shield so that I couldn't see his face and he couldn't see mine.
I walked to another part of the room as he was reading. I didn't want to hover over him because I could already tell the whole situation was making him uncomfortable.
After he was done, he tried to escape to his video games but I made him sit down. I answered a few questions he had asked me in the weeks proceeding this conversation and then he said, "Are we done now?"
I stressed that if he ever, ever, ever, had any questions to please, please, please ask me. The last thing I need is for him to be Googling around the internet.
And I also stressed that he needed to let his friend's parents tell them when they are ready to hear this information. He isn't to talk about what he's just learned at school.
Peter turned red and said something along the lines of "I'm not talking about this at school!"
And then it was done. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
If anyone is interested,
this is the book we used. (And no, I don't get paid for recommending this book.)
I figure I've got another year or two before I have the conversation with Sarah. That's going to be a completely different experience because that girl likes to ask questions...and lots of them. Wonder if I could borrow Peter's hooded jacket? I think I'm going to need it.
