It's too soon!

My girl is only eight. I had lulled myself into the comfort of thinking that homeschooling would keep her innocent longer. Unfortunately, the best laid plans and all...

I can't guard her from everything. She's got friends who love to talk 'love and marriage,' and--worse--my daughter seems to be the subject of most of the talk! Crushes, kissing, engagements, dating...ugh! I wanted avoid the silly, squeal-ly, gossipy garbage that girlies do. It seems I am not successful.

Now I have to figure out how to handle it. My daughter happens to have the personality type that keeps things buried. I find out about hurts literally months after the incident. That drives me crazy. This time, I have overheard the talk going on myself, and I need to figure out what to do. She mulls, dwells, stews. She only shares with me AFTER she has taken time to assimilate information on her own--usually tangled with all sorts of falsehoods and negative identities.

So, I have to decide if I start talking about stuff I don't want her to talk about, or just let it go. If she isn't thinking about it, and I start pushing, I might fulfill my own dread of having a girl who thinks in terms of who 'likes' whom. If I don't talk about it, but she IS, in fact, dwelling on these things, I could have a bigger mess to clean up later on.

What to do! Gosh, it is too soon! Lord, give me wisdom and patience!