You must have been “aww-ing” just moments earlier when you saw your adorable toddler holding hands with another child at the nursery. They’re holding hands once more in high school, but this time, things might get serious. We are all aware that it is possible that our teenagers may experience romantic love at some point. However, when this occurs, parents frequently feel confused—which is strange, right? All of us have experienced adolescence. Everyone has had a secret crush on someone, has blushed when making their first hesitant love confessions, has sensed that something special was happening, and has experienced the first seductive physical touch of a romantic interest. We chuckle as we witness the cunning kindergartener steal a kiss. In the age of social media, we enjoy watching and sharing movies of other people’s cheeky children while, if we don’t have a toddler to send to daycare, posting footage of our own cheeky kindergarteners making out. Our teenagers are constantly receiving subliminal messages about behavior from well crafted mashups of men and women on billboards, writhing, jiggling entertainers, and influencers on social media.
They ought to be alluring, if not seductive. Even without needing to “like” your opposite gender, being non-binary is difficult. In trying to attain all of this, they hope to find love at first sight. Such a relationship is meant to be lifelong.
