Pre-Teen: "Mom, I can't wait to be 13!"
Me: "Why?"
Pre-Teen: "Cause at 13 I will be a real teenager."
Oye, don't remind me child!
Chapter 13. No, I am not talking about debt - I am talking about teenagers. I am sure all parents have those times where they say to themselves "my baby is growing up so fast", but that thought in your head doesn't really have the impact that it does until the age of 12 and 13. At least for me. Granted, she will not be officially 13 until this fall, but the transformation is upon us!
Why is 13 such a mile stone? There must be something in history that our society believed that 13 is such a grand number. Maybe it has to due with Judaism and the belief the a boy becomes a man, girl becomes a woman, at age 13? Maybe it was the age hundreds of years ago where a girls father could sell her for a goat or a cow? Who knows? All I know is that while I am happy for my daughter to experience life, her turning 13 this year overwhelms me and makes me feel, well, OLD!
I think the reason we feel "old" when our child reaches a certain age is that we so vividly remember being that age ourselves. I still remember what it felt like to be 13, the thoughts I had, the feelings of wanting to be older and how my parents knew nothing. So how can I now be old enough to have a 13 year old? How is this possible? Well, when a man and a women love each other... and 13 years later...
Besides making me feel old, there are just some things I detest about raising a teenager. The hormones for one! I remember my dad telling me "Just you wait. One day when you get older, you will have a daughter and it will all be payback and all I am gonna do is watch! Muhahahahhaha". Seriously dad? Was I that bad? I couldn't have been THAT bad. I was perfect! (cue my little sister's remarks LOL) The hormones are quite fun though
With all that being said, there are some great things about having a teenager. The ability to force her into babysitting her younger sibling(s) and my friends kids. Yeah! Mommy can start to have a life outside of children again. We can attend a Zumba class together or take walks with the dog and she can keep my pace without having me to stop and wait for her to catch up. I can have conversations with her about things other than what happened on this mornings cartoons or about boogers. "Mom, what's the difference between republican and democrat?", "Mom, if this is a free county, why do things cost so much?" and my all entertaining question "Mom, why do some girls date so young? I mean, boys are just boys right?" Hallelujah, she is not boy crazy... yet.
I also enjoy our morning routine of making coffee together. Yes, she drinks coffee with me, but with her ADHD it's a good thing (and the doctor suggested it too so don't judge). I enjoy shopping together with her (well, as much as I can since I HATE shopping) as we can both buy from the same store section/store. She is tall enough now (5'2") that she has out grown the children's section and now wears a women's size 3/5 and a size 10 in shoes. Oh how I miss being a size 5, if I ever was actually was a size 5.
I also enjoy getting to know her. She has wonderful ideas and views about the world (and yes, some views that only a teenager would have). She asks to be able to watch the news so she can get an idea of whats happening in the world. She asks about why Israel and the Middle East fight so much. She tells her dad about what she learned in homeschool that day; about the Egyptians and their belief systems, how in science she can classify a animal by it's bone structure, how in math "if x2 times b3 is...".
While she does lead me to drink and smack my head against the wall sometimes, I look forward to seeing how she turns out. I wonder what she will make out of life. What will she do for a career. What kind of man will she marry. Things like that.
And I will close with the most best part of raising a child: I look forward to when she has kids, especially girls, and I can say:
"Now it's your turn to experience being a parent of a teenager!"
