To Whom It May Concern

Christa's first grade teacher encourages letter writing. The class has a "mail box" and each student has a personal mail "cubby." (Why are those little rectangular slots for papers called "cubbies?")

Most of Christa's mail has consisted of invitations to birthday parties or letters from her girl friends saying, "Can you cum to my hous? If you can, pls call me." The paper is usually decorated with some lovely colored picture of a rainbow or butterfly or a horse.

Yesterday Christa came home with not one, not two, but three letters from boys in her class. All three boys wrote that they liked her. Of course, one boy wrote that he liked everyone in the "clss," so I'm not sure how seriously to take his note. None of the boys invited her over to their house.

"I don't know why the boys like me," Christa said.

"Christa, you know you are too young to have a boyfriend," I reminded her. "You can be friends with these boys. That's it."

"Okay, Mom."

"You're not flirting with these boys, are you?"

"What's that?"

Let's just say I'm relieved she didn't know what fliring was.

I confiscated all the notes from the boys. I also decided I'm not going to do anything about it--for now. But if any more notes come home from boys who are declaring that they like my daughter, I'm going to talk to the teacher. I'm all for encouraging kids to write letters. But shouldn't they be writing about something else? Like what they did during the weekend. Or where they're going for Thanksgiving break. Or why they hate gym class. Or what they want for their birthday . . . something else besides liking each other.

It's only first grade. That boy-girl stuff will happen soon enough.