How many boyfriends do you have?
The other day I was talking/playing with a 5-year-old girl and, one question after another, she said to me: "Did you know I have two boyfriends?", and continued explaining, amidst a very sweet little smile, "one at the morning school and one at the afternoon school.".
I remained silent trying to process the information received and, after a few seconds, I explained my point of view to him in the terms of a 5-year-old.
Several points stand out in the episode: 1) a 5-year-old girl has a boyfriend. 2) a woman has two boyfriends. 3) the conversation revealed that she wasn't interested in getting married, just in having a boyfriend for the sake of it.
It doesn't take much thought or analysis to figure out where she got these ideas—from television, school, teachers, parents, other kids, etc. The question is: Is it healthy for a five-year-old girl to be preoccupied with these things?
My humble opinion is no. Moreover, the Torah reveals the exact opposite. These ideas are commonplace in today's society, and they are not "ours." How do we see this reflected in the Torah?
On the day Moses was to be born, Pharaoh ordered all the Jewish boys to be drowned in the Nile, sparing only the girls, in the hope that Moses would be killed in the Nile and thus fail to redeem his people. We all know the story of the baby in the basket, Miriam (Moses' sister) watching, Pharaoh's daughter taking the baby, and so on.
However, it is appropriate to pause for a moment to consider Pharaoh's decree itself. He says (Exodus 1:22): "Every son that is born you shall cast into the Nile, and every daughter you shall save." It is not written that all girls must be spared, but rather that they must be "saved" (techaiun in Hebrew). Here we can see more clearly Pharaoh's intention: Jewish boys were to suffer a physical death, while Jewish girls were to suffer a spiritual death.
In other words, the girls had to be "made to live" - educated - with the vitality, energy and idiosyncrasies of Egyptian society.
Today, the Pharaoh's worldview also exists. The only question is whether we ourselves, as parents, educators, community leaders, family members, etc., are embodying Pharaoh or Moses.