Being Mommy, part two

Two of my chicks are now eighth graders. Just for the record, eighth grade girls are scary and physically appear much, MUCH older than they are.

I am not sure what happens to them over the summer but they wake up on the first day of school in the bodies of women but with the maturity level of a seven year old.

Add to this the pure horror-mone storm that has taken place in my house and trying to reason with these new beasts is frustrating.

Slapping braces on their little smart mouths should “ugly them down” a tad and slow the process… (This is my parallel universe ….try not to burst my bubble.)

Em already has a full rack of metal and Rob is going in today for her first jaw-widening utensil that will occupy the majority of her mouth and cause her to constantly drool.

I had braces in my twenties…roughly the same time that I was pregnant with both of my chicks. Needless to say, there was a two-year span that I felt constantly frumpy and unattractive.

I am not wishing negative body imagery upon my little angels, please do not misunderstand me here…I am merely a mother with her fingers crossed trying to make it to the finish line.

I see girls their age dropping like flies into the vast pool of “stupid choices” and am quite honestly, scared to death. We always want our children to have better lives and make better choices then we did.

And I made some pretty stupid ones.

I remember back when I was out making some of those dumb-assed choices and coming home to the Queen Bee sitting at the kitchen table….SMOKING.

The Queen does not smoke.

Back then, I was sure that she could not possibly understand me or what was going on in my life. Her distain for my boyfriend, her horror at catching me smoking and her freaking out when I dropped out of school, ELUDED me.

The fact that she did not beat me to death when I marched home, barely eighteen and announced that I would be moving to Arizona, is a show of strength I may never have.

However……..

Because of the Queen….I went back to school and graduated on time.

Because of her, I snapped out of my addiction to assholes and left that jerk high and dry.

I no longer smoke, never ended up a teen mother, in jail or on drugs and eventually moved back to Michigan to be near her.

There are things that she taught and things that she said that remarkably…stuck.

I may have had to test those theories, rules, and boundaries with a blatant stubbornness that did nothing but cost me time. But eventually, that voice in the back of my head won out and set me on a better path.

So maybe….just maybe, I should relax a little and know that the things that I have been teaching and saying may actually stick.

Thanks Mom.

Sorry I was such a pain in the ass.

MichChick