Love in the Time of Corona

Back in February, my son* gave me some surprising news - he'd asked a girl to be his Valentine. Until that point, Nicky had never noticed girls exist, so it was a jaw-to-the-floor moment, for sure. I had a million questions - Who is the girl? Do you like her? Did your/her friends pressure you? What are the expectations for being one's "Valentine?" Do I need to take you to the store to buy a gift? Have you always liked girls? And so on and so forth. 

It turned out that Nicky found out that The Girl liked him, and he liked her too, so with a boost of confidence, he decided to ask her to be his Valentine.

Since this little relationship began, Scotty and I have had lots of talks with Nicky - one of the earliest conversations being the one where we outlined some boundaries for physical affection. We asked Nicky if he wanted to hold The Girl's hand or kiss her, and his answer was, "Ew, guys! No! COVID!"

We laughed at the fact that our son was discovering "relationships" in the middle of a pandemic, and his top priority was preventing the spread of the corona virus. We told him it wouldn't always be that way - that someday, kissing girls might be more important to him than preventing COVID. He scoffed at us, but within a few weeks, he realized he did, in fact, want to hold The Girl's hand. 

I noticed for a few days that he would have hand sanitizer in his hand when he got into the van after school. I eventually learned that he was "sanitizer ready" after school everyday in case he got the courage to hold The Girl's hand. That added a new awkward element to young love - to sanitize or not to sanitize? How lucky we were in the 90's to not have to think about such things!

We've told Nicky that kissing is a no-no (not that we have any control over that), and he seems to be on board... for now. Nicky is a very cautious kid, and I can just imagine him trying to work around masks to go in for a smooch. Or perhaps demanding a negative COVID test before making his move. Hopefully masks will be looooong gone before kissing happens. Like years gone. But I've been a teenager in "love" before, so I know how things go (minus the pandemic part, of course. That's a little different). 

So this is the world in which my son is being introduced to "dating" - a world where sanitizer is a considerable factor in holding hands, masks inhibit kissing, and coming within six feet of each other is a new and dangerous thrill!

This is love in the time of corona!

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*Nicky read and approved this post.