Dance Class

Mallory is teaching Jacob to dance. Why? Because our teenagers have been invited to a birthday party for Taylor Smith this Friday which includes a dance...and Jacob wants to dance. Why? Because Jacob is interested in girls and dancing and the Fifties...its a Fifties Dance. We bought the movie, Bye, Bye Birdie and he has been sold on the decade ever since. Jake still keeps in touch with a girl he met in Maine last summer and likes to talk with his friends about girls in the branch. The reason I am so intrigued by this is that of the 5 kids who have entered into their teenage years so far in our home, this is the first one that has openly shared many of their ponderings on boy-girl relations. I thought for a while that the other kids didn't have any--just sweet and innocent--I was dumb. Jacob wants to know if he's good-looking, if any girl has shown an interest in him to any of his friends, if he is creating any buzz. He and his friends talk about which girls are nice, cute, etc. I was interested tonight to hear him talking with Mallory about which girl in the branch he and/or his friends think is the cutest and I asked what about this particular girl. He said that although she was really pretty, she watches a lot of R-rated movies and does things that he didn't think were very good. As Mallory put it, "Pretty, but not attractive." Sounds discriminating--a good thing that I hope will continue. For now, I just enjoy watching them dance.