Friends and girls

The other day when I picked up the boys from the gym childcare, D told me he'd been playing with his friend. I was intrigued, so I asked some questions:

Me: "Is your friend a boy or a girl?"
D: "Boy."
Me: "Do you remember his name?"
D: "No. His name might be Jennifer, I think."
Me: "Well, Jennifer is a girl's name. Is your friend a girl?"
D: "No, he's a boy." (very emphatically)
Me: "Ok, so he's a boy. Maybe his name is something else."
D: "Yeah, maybe I just don't know right now."
Me: "Ok, well, do you know how old he is?"
D: "Yes! He's 3 just like me!" (he was really excited about that part)
Me: "Cool! He sounds like a good friend."
D: "Yeah, he likes robots." (well there you go - what's not to like)

A couple of days later we went to the gym and when I picked him up, he very happily told me he'd been playing with his friend Jackson. So we solved the friend's name mystery (Jackson, Jennifer... who knows, they both begin with J), and I think it is utterly adorable that he made a friend completely independent of my influence. So far, his friends are all either our friend's kids or kids of moms I've met at the Y in one class or another who have a kid roughly his age - not kids he's picked out as friends. It's so cute! With him about to start preschool in September, I have a feeling we're in for a lot more of this kind of thing.

How on earth is he old enough for this?

Anyway, today, when I came to pick him up from the gym childcare, I could see him through the big windows. He was sitting at a picnic-style table with about 5 other kids and they were playing with a bunch of play food in the middle. How adorable is that! I think the kids on either side of D were both girls, and there was at least one boy across from him (and I was wondering if that was Jackson, but apparently not).

On the way home I asked him about what he'd been doing at the table. He said he was playing with the food. I asked who he'd been playing with and he just said, "kids." When prompted further he told me, "There were girls, but I don't like girls."

Already?

I had to try really hard not to laugh at him, because he was so serious. I asked him why he didn't like girls and for a while he didn't really give me an answer. Then he said something about, "That girl didn't give me the food," so I'm guessing one of the girls had something he wanted and wouldn't give it to him. Which apparently demonizes the rest of the female gender in his eyes forever - or at least until puberty.

I asked him if he liked me, and he said yes. I'm apparently exempt, even though I am a girl, but his aunt isn't (my SIL who lives with us), because he said he doesn't like her. Nor does he like his little friend Ellie (a 3-year old we sometimes get together with for playdates), or our friend's kid Olivia, nor any of the other girl examples I threw at him.

"No Mom, girls are borning," he says. ("borning" being his pronounciation of "boring")

Well, there you have it. A friend named Jackson, and he doesn't like girls because they're boring.

He did say that he wants my friend's daughter Emily to come over and play, however - just so she can be the bad guy transformer and they can fight. Kid, you have a lot to learn about girls.