Dating Angst

Since when have my two oldest children, and I use the word loosely, been allowed to take notice of the opposite sex? I don't remember giving them permission to do so! I demand a recount!

*sigh*

They must grow up, I know. And part of getting a set of wings to fly is wading naked into the bloody pool of dating and significant others. So far, I've been lucky. I didn't have to lay down the law and say 'no dating till you're 16 (15,21 35), young lady/man'. So my luck, such as it is, seems to have run out. Both my oldest daughter and middle boy have expressed the desire to make connections beyond friendship with others. I vacillate between serious angst and excitement at this point. There will come the day when I find out about things such as:

*First Kiss (pretty cool)
*First Breakup (sad, but this too shall pass)
*Other girls/boys making cow eyes and passes at significant other (silly, but I'll try not to laugh)

and the dreaded one

*My First TIME

I wasn't a very good girl once I started down that road. Granted, I started down it fairly late, as far as my contemporaries went. But I sure tried to make up for lost time. And I was EXTREMELY paranoid about pregnancy and viruses. There's only so many talks a parent can have, slide shows included (thank you internet!) before you have to let go of the apron strings and trust that they have enough good sense to do the same. Oh please oh please let that be the case!! But talk about your giant can of worms. Not to mention on top of all of this, my oldest is thiiisss close to getting her drivers license for real. A whole set of new and terrifying experiences await me there. I don't know which one I'm dreading/looking forward to more. Quite a divided mind I have here! Yes/no, stop/go, do/don't, fly/crawl. I had no idea what I was getting into with this whole 'kid' thing. They never told me that they would grow up to be people, with wants and *gasp* DESIRES that went beyond Pokemon and stuffed animals!!!!

{aaarrgghhhpp}
=strangling on conflicting thoughts=

And to make it worse, like I said before, it all comes down to who they are NOW, and what I've taught them in the past. Nothing to do now but keep a weather eye on the horizon, checking for storm clouds and waterspouts. Avast ye mateys, here there be monsters!