A few weeks ago, I was babysitting for a friend of mine. The child that was to be stuck with me for a few hours was a spunky 9 year old girl. She was not by any means shy about, well, anything.

As we were walking to my house, a local construction worker nodded hello, smiled, and made a vague comment about the lovely weather. For the first time since I'd met her, the young girl went quiet.

After we'd taken a few steps away from the construction worker, she quietly blurted -He likes you! I asked her how she knew. Regaining her confidence, she squealed -Because he talked about the lovely weather AND smiled at you! I'm totally sure he likes you. Trust me, I know a lot about boys. My best friend since even before I was born is a boy. So trust me.

I trusted her.

I also asked her what I should do about it. Her walk slowed, she was contemplating.

-Ignore him. If a boy likes you you HAVE to ignore him. That way he'll go away and you won't have to beat him up for being an annoying boy.

I told her okay, I would ignore the nice construction man next time he said hello. I told her I already had a boyfriend, anyway.

She stopped dead in her tracks and looked up at me.

-Oh. Eww.