A Mother's Worry About Her Little Girl

Coco had her braces removed early this month.

While I am relieved for her that she no longer needs to suffer the pain of monthly braces-tightening, and happy that she is looking prettier than ever, she has been getting unwanted or unnecessary attention from boys and even an older man.

As soon as her braces were off, she was followed by a middle-aged man while she was doing street sales. Fortunately she managed to shake him off. I shared with her my experiences of being followed by a middle-aged man and a teenage boy to let her know she was not alone.

She was approached by a boy at the street sales to have her number. I thought she was sensible to say no.

However, she has been exchanging messages with a boy via sms, and apparently, the boy took notice of her at a sports event and sent her a Facebook friend request, which she accepted and eventually, gave her number away - to a boy she has never met!

I didn't like the way the messages went. They were bordering on the edge of flirting. And I think they are too young for THIS, or THAT.

I am really bothered. I am very worried that Coco would be carried away by the attention she has been drawing.

When I first started getting boys' attention, I was flattered, but felt that these boys would have done the same thing to any other girl. During my O levels year, I was even suspicious that these boys were trying to distract me from my exams and trying to eliminate me as an enemy. Of course that was not true, but it showed how much 'self-control' I had. However, no matter how self-controlled I was, I suspect that it did get in the way. It got worse when I was studying for my A levels. In short, boys' attention was never a good thing for me. So I am especially fearful and worried when I see how history is unfolding right before my eyes .

I hope Coco will be level-headed as she explores this side of teenagehood. She appears to be overwhelmed by the attention she is getting. I know she is too young to be savvy in dealing with such. I have never imagined that I would dig up my histories to offer her my two cents'. In fact, I would have forgotten about them if she is not going through the same thing. I guess there is some merit in such experiences after all, even if they didn't bear much good fruit.

They always say that you worry about a boy when he's little, and you worry about a girl when she grows up.

There is truth in that.