I know conventional wisdom states that boys and girls tend to ignore each other until adolescence, however some do from bonds before that time. I fell in love with a girl named Julie in the first grade and always thought girls were the most delightful and wonderful creatures in the world long before I even knew what sex was. So did any of you have crushes or “relationships” with the opposite sex before the hormones raged. Please tell your stories.
Our school had K1, K2 and then 1st grade etc.
Blonde, blue-eyed, cherubic Littlebro came home from K1, some day during his first month, looking real stormy. Turns out that this girl in his class (also blonde, blue eyed and with the looks that make any wannabe grandmother drool all over the sidewalk) had declared that she was “going to marry him and then he’s going to college to learn about making money and he’ll work a lot and make a lot of money and I’ll spend it all.”
He was fine with going to college to learn about making money and with working a lot and making a lot of money, but he reckoned she oughta spend the money she herself made, darnit! (His degree is in Business Administration, she’s a lawyer)
Kindergarten. Kim. We used to walk home together. She’d ask me to kiss her, and I’d oblige. I can still see her face, I can still remember the scene, I can still smell the cold snowy air. I sometimes wonder whatever became of her. Successful lawyer? Trailor park mother to a gaggle of poverty brats? Dead? Alive? Welfare case? Major politician? I’ll never know.
Fort Lauderdale? Are you Alex? I loved you too!
That’s sweet, but I can’t help hiding the fact that I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t grow up in Cedar Rapids. Oh well.
I’ve had girlfriends all my life. Fran was my girlfriend in kindergarten. Leah, Sheri (maybe Sherry?), a Nancy I think, all early elementary school. Later in elementary school there was Nikki (the Love of My Life for a couple of years who liked to act out the Spock and Zarabeth scene from TOS: “All Our Yesterdays,” and the first girl I ever had the “you wanna do it” conversation with … that was around my 12th birthday and, no, we decided against), Tracy, Ruth (not quite a L.O.M.L., but on-again/off-again through middle school).
Edit: Oh, and I left off the unrequited L.O.M.L.s (Beth and Wendy).
Yup…I had a girlfriend in 1st grade. Then not again till 12th grade.
I recall it was a lot of hand-holding and “I’m going to marry you” type stuff.
Thanks for reminding me that my self-esteem may have peaked at 7.
I never ran into that conventional wisdom; I think Kindie is about when kids start declaring undying love – though it must be said that their track record for fidelity is usually not good.
My first love was Adriaan, a nice little Dutch boy, in nursery school. So I grew up and coincidentally married a nice big Dutch boy (but not Adriaan, alas, we moved away from the Bay Area. Or they did.)
When Eldest started Kindie, a little girl walked up to me and told me she would be marrying him. I said I was pleased to meet her and she told me not to tell him yet as she planned to tell him at the last minute lest he should raise objections. But now he is in second grade and in love with another little girl.
Youngest who is in Kindie was recently engaged to a girl in pre-K and they planned to have 18 children. But he gave her up because she wanted to marry everybody and he didn’t like that.
Ah, you’d have just been running after that hoochie Kim.
I always had crushes on boys,even during the years when I was supposed to not like them.
My son, age 8, fell in love with one girl when he was 4. She still holds his heart. Even when other girls are now gross and have “germs,” she’s still special to him. He doesn’t talk about her much–I guess it’s too sacred. He has told us he will never love anyone else, and if she won’t have him he will never marry and live alone the rest of his life. Drama, anyone? But he’s dead serious.
When I was in fourth grade I fell desperately in love with a beautiful third-grader named Ginger. Her family lived only a block away from us, but we were Methodist, they were Catholic – our love was doomed from the start. That, and the fact that she didn’t know I was alive.
Ah, kindergarten. I loved Robert, he was cute and had glasses. Alas, our true love was not to be, as my family moved away at the end of the school year.
In our kindergarten, there was a big emphasis on partners. If you needed to do something, you had to pick a partner (passing out cookies, cleaning up toys, walking to the school bus). Proudly flouting tradition, Robert and I always picked each other as partners. All the other kids strictly adhered to picking their same gender friends. Yeah, it’s a little alarming to realize that was both the first and last time I was ahead of the dating and relationships curve.
Greg Shaw. In first grade. We used to hug during recess. It was of moderate scandalousness as he was African-American and my elementary school had only integrated five years previous. But my parents were friends with his parents (who were actually native African, his father taught at the University) and didn’t care. I saw him again in the 80’s and he had this horrible high top fade with MC Hammer pants and my crush was crushed.
I never went through a boy hating phase; I always had crushes. But then I hit middle school and everything became awkward and weird with the boys. Sigh…
I have an brief, isolated memory of myself, age 4, and Jill, age 5, holding hands in the backyard of our nursery school, and my feeling very privileged to be her boyfriend.
My first major crush was in third or fourth grade, well before hormones. Goodnight, Lizette, wherever you are.
I was good friends with several girls in K and 1st. My first crush was on another boy (I think it was 1st grade) named Brandon. He was just adorable.
2nd grade, Telstar Elementary Theresa A. Red hair, freckles, and she looked dynamite in her blue bird uniform.
I had my first actual crush in fifth or sixth grade, but there was a girl in about first grade who inspired some kind of feelings from me. I named my cat after her. Her older sister used to babysit me and my younger brother.
When I was in kindergarten, I liked a boy in my neighborhood, Ryan. I was really annoying and would make his sister, Trisha, help me chase him around. Literally. I would yell, “I’m going to kiss you!!!” and chase him through the yard.
But as far as my confidence with guys, it was a long downward slide after that!
I think his name was Juan, but I’m not entirely sure, as I was three. He was a real bad boy, though. Oh yeah, he’d tool around the neighborhood on his Big Wheels and swear. I learned the word “caca” from him and was absolutely scandalized.
Good times.
I had a few other crushes during grade school and even had a wedding with one boy, Sam, when we were eight.
I never had a boy-hating phase either. I developed my first crush on the first day of Kindergarten (Daniel), and kept going strong right up until today. I think having a crush is just my natural state–fortunately my husband doesn’t mind.
I still wonder what happened to Daniel, Shawn (1st grade), Matt (2nd grade), AJ (3rd grade), Brady (4th grade), Ryan (5th grade), Chris (oh god, he was so hot 6-7 grade), Tyler (I swore I would never love again. Of course, I did, but I don’t think I ever had such an intense crush), and on and on.
I thought this was pretty normal, and I once asked my husband about his crushes. Turned out, he never had any at all. So I asked him why he was such a freak…