Second Opinions

"Are you keeping secrets from her?"

Middle schoolers are my favorite for giving a second opinions on your relationship. Or at least, they do a bang-up job of checking out your partner.

"Will you stay by her side?"

When I was back for graduation, my friend showed me a video of her middle school students interviewing her fiance. They bounce back and forth between "What are your intentions?" and "What is her favorite color?" Both important questions when you think about it.

"Will you buy her anything she wants?"

So when I realized List Guy was going to meet one of my best friends while she had two middle schoolers living with her, I asked them to check him out for me. My friend looked over their list first and apparently vetoed some questions that were too straight-from-a-tv-wedding-ceremony. Though, they were still awfully concerned about my material well being.

"Do have a house, a car, and money?"

 A lot of the questions have obvious "right" answers. But they're still the questions that people want the answers to. We're just "too polite" to actually ask them.

"What do you like about her?"

Or at least to ask them of our friend's new partner. We ask our friend what they like about the new person in their life. Much less likely to ask the new partner.

"What are you good at?"

The friend who introduced me to the middle-school second opinion system let her kids be on their own with her partner.  She got the video tape in the end.

"What would you change about him?" "If you changed all of him, what would you change back?"


We didn't have a proper camera. Nor did we really have another place for me to go in my friend's apartment building, so I was sitting beside List Guy for his interview. It was one of the most adorable feeling moments we've had together.


"Do you smoke or drink?"


I hope we didn't make my friend gag. Maybe that's the other reason these the middle schoolers are better at these interviews. We like a bit of other people's romance in the movies. Too much from our friends quickly gets to be Too Much. Middle school is more of a time of watching others' relationships in books and movies and real-life as you dreaming what your future relationships will be.


"Do you trust her?"

And really, only an interview by middle-schoolers can end with an on-demand  talent show to prove that you didn't lie earlier.