Have I mentioned that I have a teenage daughter? Did you know that it is a universal law that once puberty strikes a teenage girl MUST disagree with everything her mother says?
Yes... It's true. Sad, but true.
I love being a Mom. Always have, probably always will. From her birth until last Friday night, I have loved every single second of being her Mom. There were no late nights with a sick or crying baby. The terrible two's were a myth in my house. Three and Four were fascinating and wonderful for both of us and the years that followed were equally fantastic! Even when other mother's warned me to prepare for middle school and I did… Like Y2K… Nothing. So admittedly…. I let my guard down.
Then she turned on me. How could this have happened? How did she go, in what seemed like minutes, from being a sweet, loving, fun, cheerful and carefree child to becoming an argumentative, sulking, petulant little brat???
The rolling of the eyes, the look as if to say, "Mom, you are a complete idiot," the big sigh with the arm cross in front of the chest and the disagreeing with EVERYTHING I say -- all mothers of teenage daughters know exactly what I am talking about… Don't get me wrong, all of those things combined don't begin to compare to the other stories I have heard and in some cases seen. With some teenage girls rapidly turning from happy kids who love life, to angry young women who are cutting, starving and acting out sexually… Admittedly, it could be a lot worse. But still… WHY?? Why my daughter?? Was it too much to ask for her to be different than EVERY OTHER TEENAGE girl to ever have walked the planet??
In retrospect, having a teenager has quickly begun to resemble my labor and delivery with said child. I was a young mother and took all the childbirth classes I could handle. So when the time came, I just knew my own labor and delivery was going to go as effortlessly as any good Lamaze Movie. I had fully prepared myself for my contractions to begin 39 minutes apart, causing so little irritation that I would be able to continue doing dishes and animatedly laughing with my (then) husband. The contractions would over the course of several hours increase both in number and intensity but this time span would allow me to build up my tolerance and would surely allow for a smooth, happy and fulfilling Labor and Delivery. Enter my amazing unborn child. Two weeks past due... nearly nine pounds and not exactly wanting to give me the time I thought I needed to "Build My Tolerance."
I thought I had time to prepare. I thought wrong. My first contractions were a mere three minutes apart, not the 39 minutes I had envisioned, and were lasting over a minute a piece. There were no dishes to be done and the only thing I wanted to do with my husband in that moment was put him through a slow and tortuous death!! As quickly as it began, it ended and she came into my world with a vengeance just under eight hours later.
So I guess in hindsight, I should have been preparing for this moment for 14 years… And I am still shocked that it has happened so quickly.
