My latest Babble blog post is about how different each of my three eldest offspring are with regard to being willing to talk about their potential romantic interests with me:

If I hadn’t already mothered my way through the teenage years with one kid who would clearly endure waterboarding before telling me whether he has any romantic interest in anyone in particular, I would be patting myself on the back about now, confidently smug in the “fact” that my obviously superlative parenting skills were the sole reason that J is so open with me about this stuff. But honestly, I haven’t done anything any differently with Kid #2 than I did with Kid #1 when it comes to encouraging these sorts of conversations. So I know that this is one instance where Judith Rich may be onto something, because in this developmental area, nature clearly kicks nurture to the curb; some teenagers are obviously born with a willingness to tolerate, and even indulge their mothers’ annoying curiosity about their love lives, while others are not.

And now along comes E, who just started 6th grade last month. E has always had a certain way with the ladies, as well as a natural confidence that I feel pretty certain will assure him no small measure of success in the teenage Dating Game. He’s also much more chatty in general than his older brother, H, who is naturally quite reserved and private. So I erroniously assumed that E would be more like his sister J (and Greg Brady) when it comes to openly telling mom exactly what’s up with his love life. But only 6 weeks into middle school, he has already let me know that he’s still trying to decide where he will fall on the continuum of openness.

Read the rest over at Babble.