Not-So-Small Boy has a phone. At last. We held out until senior school before letting him have one. And thank goodness we did. The minute you give a child a phone, the floodgates of social politics are opened wide.
At junior school, my son did all his socialising in the playground and this was kept very separate from his home life. (For socialising read "pretending to be a lemur" or "digging holes to Australia".) Now, thanks to the phone, the socialising follows him home of an evening creating unforeseen complications.
This presents itself early in the term by the sound of Not-So-Small Boy's phone vibrating at such an alarming intensity that I fear it is about to spontaneously combust. My son is upstairs doing his homework, so I peer at the screen to see a message from an unknown number which reads: "Do you like Henry more than me?"
Strange, I think. I cannot imagine one of my son's friends asking him this. Even amongst his less-than-macho crowd, the boys would not ask each other such questions. But a girl would not ask if my son preferred a boy to her - would she? I am feeling out of my depth, so decide to tackle this head-on over supper.
"Your phone has been receiving messages non-stop this evening," I say.
"You didn't read them, did you?" Not-So-Small Boy asks.
"Er, well, I couldn't help seeing the latest one," I say carefully. "But don't worry, I've no idea who it's from."
Not-So-Small Boy leaves the table hurriedly and snatches up his phone. "Oh no!" he cries, flicking his thumb over the screen. "I'm going to kill him!"
I wait.
My son looks up. "This is someone texting me who thinks I'm someone else," he says, his face white with concern.
"Oh?" I say.
"Yeah, y'see, William is getting bullied by these boys who keep picking him up and putting him in the lockers and saying that he's gay and so in revenge when one of them asked him for Ellie's number, William gave them mine instead."
I try to unpick this. "So . . . you are getting texts from one of the bullies because he thinks you are a girl he is interested in?" I say.
"Yes! And I don't know what to do, coz if I play along I might get bullied too."
Poor boy, I think, the Age of Innocence has ended.
But I can't help having a surge of respect for my son's best friend. William - 1, Bullies - 0!
At junior school, my son did all his socialising in the playground and this was kept very separate from his home life. (For socialising read "pretending to be a lemur" or "digging holes to Australia".) Now, thanks to the phone, the socialising follows him home of an evening creating unforeseen complications.
This presents itself early in the term by the sound of Not-So-Small Boy's phone vibrating at such an alarming intensity that I fear it is about to spontaneously combust. My son is upstairs doing his homework, so I peer at the screen to see a message from an unknown number which reads: "Do you like Henry more than me?"
Strange, I think. I cannot imagine one of my son's friends asking him this. Even amongst his less-than-macho crowd, the boys would not ask each other such questions. But a girl would not ask if my son preferred a boy to her - would she? I am feeling out of my depth, so decide to tackle this head-on over supper.
"Your phone has been receiving messages non-stop this evening," I say.
"You didn't read them, did you?" Not-So-Small Boy asks.
"Er, well, I couldn't help seeing the latest one," I say carefully. "But don't worry, I've no idea who it's from."
Not-So-Small Boy leaves the table hurriedly and snatches up his phone. "Oh no!" he cries, flicking his thumb over the screen. "I'm going to kill him!"
I wait.
My son looks up. "This is someone texting me who thinks I'm someone else," he says, his face white with concern.
"Oh?" I say.
"Yeah, y'see, William is getting bullied by these boys who keep picking him up and putting him in the lockers and saying that he's gay and so in revenge when one of them asked him for Ellie's number, William gave them mine instead."
I try to unpick this. "So . . . you are getting texts from one of the bullies because he thinks you are a girl he is interested in?" I say.
"Yes! And I don't know what to do, coz if I play along I might get bullied too."
Poor boy, I think, the Age of Innocence has ended.
But I can't help having a surge of respect for my son's best friend. William - 1, Bullies - 0!
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