Your 10 year old son in fifth grade wants to have a girlfriend you still think he's too young to have one What do you think?

As a parent, you are responsible for your child and have both a right and an obligation to do what is best for him. Explain to him your reasons that you feel he is too young and stick to your guns on it. Make sure he understands that your rules are based on how much you love him, not on how much you want to control his life.

Also you may want to have him actually define what he thinks it means to "have a girlfriend" to better understand exactly what he is looking for....

Does he want to be like the other kids?

Are other kids teasing him because he doesn't have a girlfriend?

Does he feel like he has to have a girlfriend in order to "grow up"?

Is there a particular girl he likes? (In that case teach him how to have a friend who is a girl without necessarily having her as a girlfriend.)

Knowing what he is thinking will help you understand better how to best counsel him and help you and him grow closer.

Let's be honest - what a 5th grader is thinking about when it comes to girlfriend/boyfriend is far less mature than the relationships he will have in another 10 years (at least it had BETTER BE!). He won't miss out on anything by waiting a while to have a girlfriend and it will probably allow him to develop much more healthy interpersonal skills to NOT try to have a girlfriend