Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Not looking forward to the teenage years...

"Sophia, get your bike, take it home, and put it away."
"Whhhhyyyy?!?"
"Weren't you told to stay on the sidewalk?"
"Yes, but daddy said we could go to Amy's"
"I'm not mad because you went to Amy's, I'm mad because you were riding in the street."
"Who told you I was in the street?"

Reminds me of the stories you hear older folks talk about when they were smaller, or their children were smaller. Everyone looks out for each others kids. I heard Junior (Our across the street neighbor) yelling Sophia's name all the way down our street. I knew what she was doing, because it's about the only thing that gives him a heart attack worthy of yelling down the block. I went out and he let me know she had been in the road like the other kids. Darn other kids. Don't they know they aren't allowed to have any fun because it's a bad influence to my perfectly carved children.

Parenting a child who is still very much a child, but already wants to be 10 or 11 is really hard. Harder than Alice's screaming fits. Harder than wishing your baby would sleep through the night. It's much harder. And I am so lucky I get to do it three times more after this. I love that Sophia, and all of them, have their cousins and so many friends close by. I don't know how to make her understand that parents are different and just because her cousin (10yo) is allowed to ride down the middle of the street and back that she (5yo) is not. She already does do many things that make her seem older than she is. I don't want her growing up so fast, but I am having trouble stopping it. I don't know what to do. I've taken away the disney channel, but she still has 10 and 8 year old cousins that she's close to. I can't help the things she picks up. I can't help her personality, which happens to be just like mine. I don't know what to do half the time. I feel like I am doing nothing but disciplining and taking away everything she wants to be. I don't know how to find the balance between what she's becoming and what I am okay with her becoming and can mold a bit differently. I don't even know if I am making sense. Baby's crying. Gotta Run.

2 comments:

Hubs said...

I understand completely! My kids play with the neighborhood kids... supervised, in our yard and I am constantly explaining these things. And, the language is so variable. "I don't care if Marcos says 'darn-it' and 'crap' you still have to use nice words." Speaking of language, I was trying to track how many MF's I overheard the other day while we were outside playing. I gave up. I wish I could convince my neighbors to argue over Lebron and Kobe inside their house where their strong sentiments aren't putting bad words in my kids ears.

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