Dating Tips From a 5-Year-Old

The pic's a lil' fuzzy - us at the Roller Derby rink!

You know the saying, everything you need to know you learned in Kindergarten, right? Well, I recently babysat my friends' 5-year-old son, and I joked that it was the best date I had had in quite a while! No, but seriously. 

He was game for everything… 

• He let me take him to see my friend's Roller Derby match (and agreed to stay about 10-minutes longer than he cared to)… A compromiser. 
• Wanted an Icee and shared it with me… A sharer. 
• When he asked what else we were doing, I said we would get dinner and he wanted pizza… Great taste in food, even if he preferred Pizza Hut over any other kind of pizza (my compromise). 
• He then asked if we could watch a movie and he let me pick it (we agreed to watch Star Wars ;-) ). 

He was genuinely interested in learning about ME… 

• He asked what I do for a living. Explaining what marketing is to a 5-year-old was a challenge, but I think I did an okay job. His response? "I think you should do something else for work" – to which I asked “Well, what do you think I should do?” He responded with both the professions his Dad and Mom work within… And we had a chat. 
• He also asked where I live – and then asked if I'm friends with my neighbors. 

HE'S 5!! 

I truly can't recall the last time I had someone who was really interested in learning about me in such a genuine way. Of course, these aren't just lessons in dating, but in life, and I really appreciated the sweet little evening I had with my smart new boyfriend Gabe. 

Oh, and he was right about the pizza, by the way, and didn't rub it in too much – just gave me the "yumm-o" lifted eyebrows and said "I told you." 

Touché.