She’s Growing Up

Tonight I learned a lesson in parenting, the one where you learn that your child is ready to move on. You know to grow up and no longer be your baby. What happened? While it was a fun night of excitement and laughter there was a bit of sadness mixed in when my oldest daughter (8 year old) told me she didn’t want to do something.

The Life of a Home Mom

Yes, this is a normal child thing but for me it was more than that. I didn’t understand why she didn’t want to do this thing. It was something she’d always loved to do, she always jumped at it before. I was puzzled and a little hurt by this, I quickly thought of the Grinch and how my heart must’ve shrank a bit. In the end she told me, “Mom, that’s for little kids. I’m not a kid anymore.”

I won’t lie, it stung. But for me the stinger was more of my own feelings, I knew she was right and she was getting older. Why is it so hard to let them grow up? Why is it so hard to not want to do those cute things with them that they always loved and to hear they don’t like them anymore? I know why, because we are parents and we still remember the yesterdays of their childhood. While they are rushing to get older and move forward, we are wanting to freeze time and just watch, to hold that moment in just a little longer. We know our children will grow up and move on, we want this to last as long as possible.

In the end she did do the one tiny favor I wanted, she got a picture with a character at a show and made my day. Course I guess we’ll realy see how that picture turned out. At the end of the night though, she ran up to me and hugged and kissed me, “Mom I still love you and I had a BALL tonight.” My heart recovered from the earlier shrinkage.

Have you been through this? How did you handle it? I don’t think I’m ready for these guys to get older, I guess it’ll be one step (very tiny) at a time.