For many years I have wondered…how do you know..how do you really know when your pre-teen becomes a real teen??
I know now.
There were many signs, the rolling of the eyes, the attitudy back talk, the “Moooooooooom"-everytime I ask him to get off the computer or do a chore. The signs were always there but did not give me the proof I really needed that this had truly begun. I have a 12.5 yr old so I know the difference…..it’s not the real thing yet.
Then there were the more dramatic recent “hints”. The little pimples, the more square shoulders, the 4 inch growth spurt, the longer and more frequent showers and the “in my face here I am” exhibition of certain teenage signs.
But the real time came; the moment came….this summer..a couple of weeks a go in our kitchen.
When Chase had been out hanging around in the village near us with his friend or friends like he has been doing in the last months almost daily and nightly….and then he came home at 11pm which is already weird in itself.
And he started making pasta in the kitchen at midnight.
And we were tired and decided to go to bed before him.
And he stayed up and still made the pasta
And it never occurred to us remind him “to make sure the stove is turned off or to go to bed at a certain hour” Why not?
Because we knew that he knew to turn it off. And we knew that he would go to bed when he was good and ready.
And both felt perfectly natural and perfectly fine for whatever strange and odd reason.
Our work in a lot of ways was complete:( He was a pasta cooking night owl now and was managing on his own in a way that made sense to him. We went to bed that evening….and I knew the time had come.
I shed a few little tears and said little "I luv you"s in my mind for the darling boy I love to bits. My first baby.
And knew that it was all going to be (somewhat) ok.
Fini! Suivant???
