"I want to marry you, mama!"

[busymama77]

My DS has entered the "marrying" phase of his life. Apparently, he's already entered it at pre-school, according to his teacher. Hugging the girls, holding hands, touchy feely, but no kissing. With me, he likes to hold my hand, snuggle, play with my hair, and when he wants to give me a kiss, he puts his hands on my face and the whole bit. Before he does it, he asks DH to look - sometimes DH will and sometimes he won't - I think because it makes him a little uncomfortable. It is a little odd.....
And then he'll want to say "I want to marry you, mama!!". Which I just love to hear.

Where does this all stem from? He's always been a very loving, snuggly kind of guy, very compassionate and considerate for his age (he'll be 4 tomorrow). As I don't mind the little pecks here and there and I don't want to upset him when he wants to hold the kisses longer as it is really something that he shouldn't be doing.

Has anyone else entered this phase with their DS? If so, what were some things that you said to help him through this phase not make him discouraged or upset?

[Alyantavid]

I think it's a pretty normal stage for kids this age. My 3.5 year old waffles between this type of stuff and not wanting any affection at all.

If you're worried about kissing lasting too long, make up a silly way to kiss. My son got this puffed out cheek kiss thing from "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs". We both do it and end up laughing after about a second.

[meemee]

does your husband kiss you in front of the kids? he is perceptive enough to see that it might be different than the way he kisses ds.

or from the movies. any romantic kids movie like shrek. my dd got it from spiderman and tried it on me and when i said ewwwww wet kiss she said but mama mary jane kisses spiderman like that. i carried on the ewwww wet kiss for a little while, it turned into a game and eventually that went away.

oh yeah and the marriage thing - she was married from age 4 to 6. at 6 she said she liked too many of the boys so 'divorced' her husband (i am a single mommy) and said she'll get married when she is older.

she also asked if i could marry a woman as two mamas are much more fun than a mommy and daddy.

also just an fyi - trying to figure out where your child is getting it from - many times there will be no answers. esp. if they are the imaginative kind. my dd has done/said things/concepts she has had NO exposure to.