My 13-year-old recently admitted to me that he’s begun to like girls. The 11-year-old still says, “Ewww!”
When prodded as to whether there is a particular girl he’s interested in, he replied, “Only every girl in the whole school!”
I hear alot that kids under the age of 12 or 13 are think the opposite sex is full of cooties, gross, wierd… whatever.
However, I distinctly remember having a crush on a little boy in kindergarten. I could be wrong here, but I believe his name was Ronald McDonald. Not the clown, an actual 5 year old boy.
Then, from grades 1-3, it was Todd Chaney. Grades 4-7 found me hopelessly, painfully enamored with Clark Henderson. Mike Mcardle was the object of my affections all through junior high and high school. Sigh.
None of these were boys I dated, I was WAY too much of a dork. Unrequited love through almost 100% of your childhood is painful!
If you’re a girl, did you ever not like boys (or girls, if that’s the case) ?
If you’re a boy, did you think girls were gross before a certain age (or boys if that’s the case)?
When I was 5 my older sister’s best friend’s teenage sister made me feel funny. I didn’t know why, but I wanted to be around her. All three of the above referenced females recognized this and tortured me mercilessly.
It was fourth grade before I could again imagine some female of my acquaintance causing my head to swim. But swim it did, and I called poor Sarah B. about 50 times to see if she’d changed her mind about being my girlfriend. She hadn’t.
Hm. I know that I had my first “boyfriend” in kindergarten, so I reckon there was never a time when I didn’t like boys. 
“However, I distinctly remember having a crush on a little boy in kindergarten.”
Is that you Sherry? You know, if you hadn’t grabbed me and kissed me on the cheek in front of the whole class I might not have been so mean to you. Sorry. Oh yeah: Did your freckles ever go away?
I had a crush on Bonnie, who lived two doors down the street. I was five. One day Bonnie’s mother stopped the car so my grandma and I could see Bonnie, age 13, all dressed up for her first dance. GOD, she was more beautiful than ever! Just from lookin’ at her I turned deep red from head to foot.
After they left, Grandma told me Bonnie had a “date” and was going to the dance with some boy her age. I was crushed! Ruined! I would have walked her to the dance, if she’d only asked.
I distinctly remember thinking that a girl in my class was cute when I was in Pre-Kindergarten. I was around four at the time.
Somehow I missed the first grade “roundup” day when everybody was supposed to go meet the teacher and such. We might have been on vacation, but I got the impression that my mom just got the dates mixed up. Anyway, I had to go on a different day, and the only other about-to-be first grader there was a boy who had broken his leg and had to be in a wheelchair. I fell head over heels. I was five. And I stayed in love with him until almost the end of eighth grade. He was my boyfriend through most of junior high, and then I fell for somebody more exciting. I think I just outgrew him a bit.
My son started a little younger than that, even, but then he went to preschool and I never did. He was four when he fell in love with the little brown-haired girl in his preschool class. I caught him writing her name on everything, even some of my cloth napkins when he couldn’t find any paper. (At least they were washable markers.) And he told me one day when I was walking him to school, “Every day I go to school, I fall in love with Jill.”
I had a crush on a girl in kindergarten and we “dated,” if there is such a thing at that age. Our parents knew about it, thought it was cute and took us out to dinner.
I didn’t date again until after my junior year of high school. I wonder where she is today. For that matter, I wonder where the other girls I had crushes on are now.
Starting at the tender age of 5, I had a series of heart breaking crushes. Daniel, Matt, Shawn, Matt, AJ, Ryan, Chris, Tyler (that was a fucking killer, it really crushed me), Nick, Kendrick, Chris, Chris…the last two while I was married. There has literally never been a time in my life when I didn’t have a major, consuming crush. I was shocked, shocked, when my husband told me he only had 1 or 2. I thought it was normal to be in love with somebody constantly to the point of distraction.
But yeah, Daniel was the first. I wanted to kiss him a lot. I bet it wouldn’t be too hard to find out what happened to him…
I had a boyfriend and a girlfriend in Kindergarten. The boy was the son of a Korean diplomat and spoke very little english, which I thought was way cool. The girl was a friend of mine who fancied Jun as well, so she became my girlfriend in order to be Jun’s girlfriend.
Hey, it made sense at 5.
My first girlfriend was Jill Hoekstra. We were in nursery school. I was 4 and she was 5. I remember holding hands with her in the schoolyard near the chainlink fence.
But my first unrequited, unbearable, honest-to-goodness crush was on Lizette Cottrill. We were in 4th grade. She had messy blond hair, almond eyes, and bright red and blue clothes. I would gravitate toward her on the playground until my friends noticed and teased me.
I’m suprised at how many of these posts were made my guys. I thought it would mostly be girls that got started early.
Starting to worry about the 11-year-old.
Well, I sure wasn’t going to tell my mom about Lizette…
Two. I’ve got the photos. Her name was Susan and I used to go into the house and come back with a cookie for each of us, and we’d sit on the stoop and I’d put my arm around her.
Next girlfriend at 5, then another in 2nd-3rd grade (which would have made me between 7 and 9), then a long empty stretch until I was 17.
The first one I clearly remember was in first grade. I called him Chrissy, taunted him mercilessly, teased him, and man did I have a crush on him. Once he chased me around the playground (for a round of pigtail pulling) and actually caught up with me. And kissed me on the cheek and ran away. I thought, I’ll never wash this cheek again.
Funny thing was, I didn’t see him for several years because I moved to the other side of town and went to a different school. Saw him again in sixth grade, and had just as big a crush on him as ever. It was sad, really.
We went our separate ways again, and I never saw him - BUT I found out that my best friend had dated him for several months, and that he was a big part of the reason she had moved here. It was really rather odd.
First grage age 7 the girl was named Julie, totally unrequited she didn’t know I existed. 
The first one I remember was on Robert, a boy in my kindergarden class. He wore glasses, I thought this was too cute. We always picked each other when we had to choose partners for any class activities. In our kindergarden, the children were not allowed to walk around in the school hallways without a partner (so we wouldn’t get lost, I guess) and when I returned to school after a two week absense due to chicken pox, the teacher had him be my partner for the walk to the nurse’s office to deliver my doctor’s note. In the deserted hallway, he kissed me! Swoon!
(I mean, he leaned over and gave me a peck on the mouth, it wasn’t like a soul kiss or anything! It was very sweet.)
I moved to another school district shortly after that, and continued to have crushes, although sadly it was a long time before any of my crush targets reciprocated.
I liked a girl named Krista in kindergarten and remained friends with her until about the fourth grade, when one day she told me that she didn’t like me anymore. I had no idea why or what I ever did or said to make her not want to be around me anymore. I felt upset and confused. If I had only known that this experience was my first taste of reality for when I’d officially become of dating age later on.
My first actual “crush”, that is, keeping my eyes on a girl I liked and daydreaming about her, was in the sixth grade. I even felt jealous whenever she started talking to another boy I didn’t like. I never did talk to her about my feelings or send her any notes or things like that. I eventually moved on once we got to junior high and focused my attention on other girls.
His name was Martin, and it started in kindergarten. I was desperately in love with him until the day in grade three when I saw him holding hands with April Colter over the back of the bus seat. That tramp.
After Martin, they came fast and furious. From grade four until I met my fiance (and, like pepperlandgirl, a couple since then as well), I went from one crush to the next to the next usually with not one minute in between. Some of them liked me back, some of them didn’t, and until late high school, reciprocation (or lack of) didn’t seem to have any effect one way or the other on who I was crushing on.
My first crush was a guy in my class when I was 10. He was the first guy I ever sent a Valentines card to. (I’ve only sent one since, and I’m 19.)
I remember really liking certain girls in 1st grade at age 7, but I was the type that didn’t want anyone to know and would go to great mesaures to make sure that was the case. There was this one girl in 1st grade whose name I don’t remember, but she was real cute and would always let me brush out the small locket of hair she was always chewing on. When people would ask me if she was my friend, I would say no and qualify that by saying I didn’t like girls. The fact of the matter was that I had a small crush on this one girl.
It wasn’t until 5th grade that I really got hit hard with a crush for Penny. She was short, petite and had long brunette hair. She was very cute, and also one of the nicest girls I had ever met. She was the first of many major crushes I ever had and for her, that crush lasted well through High School.
Other girls I have had crushes on, starting in 7th grade (age 13)…BTW, I never got the gumption to ask any of them out. I was such a chicken. :
Maureen: She sat in front of me in 7th grade English. She was short, had long brown hair and glasses, and was very nice.
Michelle: Was in Orchestra class with me in 7th through 10th grade. She also rode my bus. She was short (Hey is there a pattern here? ) had short blonde curly hair, and also was nice.
Lori: Was in my Spanish Class in 11th and 12th grades. She was the only one I actually dated for awhile, but she never was really interested in me.
Mary: She was one I started out not having any interest in at all, until I had a very erotic dream about her. After that I was hooked.
I have to admit that I still carry a bit of a torch for Penny today and sometimes I kick myself for never asking her out in High School.