ahmedabad a teacher at a city school was shocked when she got hold of a note bearing the message i love you addressed to a girl the message was circulating in class i at which stage kids are about 6 years old the girl disavowed the note the boy thought to be its author told the teacher that he liked the girl and for him like and love were interchangeable termsa group of class iii girls about 8 years old of another school were busy discussing love affiliations and linking each other with the boys when a teacher stepped in to shoot down the cupids arrows flying around the class the girls said they were only having fun for their part the boys seemed enamoured of only video games and gadgets in yet another school a girl in class vii about 12 years old stopped talking after developing a crush on a new boy she had speech problems and did not want him to notice thatlove like the internet is catching them young indeed children are being exposed to the ideas of attraction and love through a host of mediums primarily the mobile internet but they seldom get the help of adults to tackle halfformed instincts driven perhaps by early hormonal changes or the loneliness that is inevitable in a nuclear family or when being brought up by a single parent children are seeking solace from peers but the peers themselves are a confused lot i am a homemaker and have all the time in the world to monitor my children said kalpana parikh a mother of two teenage daughters but it is difficult to keep an eye on their whatsapp chats there no topic is offlimit she went on to say recently i found my daughter a class vii student resolving a tiff between her classmates who were in a relationship according to her another parent tushar singh said my son is in class vi but his friendship with senior girls of class ixx often scares me singh added once i found love letters in his school diary i was disturbed it took me a lot of time to make him understand things and bring his focus back to studies smita ghosh a counsellor said children confess to being in love but lack clarity about love ghosh said it is crucial to make children understand that attraction is normal and at times hormonespurred but they should not miss their goals she said dr prashant bhimani a psychologist said if you make your children understand respectful relationship indirectly they will apply the principle themselves