My son is about to finish Yr6 and is going to secondary school in September. A couple of weeks ago he got together with a girl in his class who he seems to have had a crush on for a long time. He is quite private and did not tell me about her directly but has recently started using WhatsApp on my phone to message friends (he doesn't have his own phone yet) and started messaging this girl. I did tell him that I would need to check his messages now and then to monitor and so have been reading their chats.
I'm a little worried about this because the messages they are sending (particularly on his side) seem a little intense. e.g. I love you, I miss you so much, I can't live without you, I'm stressed, I want to stay in primary forever with you, and talking about stuff that he has on his mind with her. They are both going to different secondary schools, which is why he is probably feeling particularly anxious. I'm sure a lot of it is related to the stress of the general transition from primary to secondary, and probably the fact that he has also realised girls are usually better at giving emotional support - he is not at all emotionally vulnerable with his male friends. I know it's normal that kids rely on their friends rather than their parents to a certain extent, but I'm worried that he is talking to her about his feelings rather than us (he is not even 11 yet!)
I'm not really sure what to do for the best. Should we let him see this girl in the holidays or let him message her (at the moment he wants to message every day, and will try to get my phone under the pretence of trying to use it for something else). We were going to get him his own mobile phone for his birthday in August before he starts secondary, but I'm feeling really apprehensive about that now.
I have talked to him a bit about his feelings for this girl, but that was before the more recent, more emotional messages, and I am trying to work out how to broach things with him and what ground rules to lay down. I'm kind of hoping that it will all fizzle out once he gets to his new school. Has anyone else experienced something like this? Am I overreacting?