We are fast approaching two birthdays in our home - those of munchkin #2 and 3. Munchkin #3 will be 11 years old in a few weeks. It's hard to believe that small infant I can remember holding is rapidly approaching my own height. A family that we are friendly with has a 14 year old boy. I remember him at 10, and he was roughly the same size as munchkin #3 is now. I recently saw this boy and he now, a mere four years later, tops 6 feet in height. It struck me when I saw him that in three or four years, I too might be looking up to my youngest. How odd that will seem!
The other birthday we are approaching is munchkin #2's. He will be 13, making me the mother of TWO teenagers. One has been quite the handful, so two seems to me like it will be double the trouble. However, these two children couldn't be more different in personality and temperament. Maybe I'll get one easy teenager in munchkin #2? I can dream, anyway.
I wish there was a way to turn back the clock sometimes, although watching all of them grow and prosper is also warming to the heart. Still, I'm a mother. I miss my babies and toddlers, and I'm not sure when they turned into these small adults I see before me. Then again, a friend recently had a baby. My first thoughts were something along the line of, "I wish I had a small baby like that!" Then, memories of diapers, bottles, getting up in the night, and all the rest came flooding back. Maybe teenagers are not so bad after all!
Seriously though, for as much as people joke about having older kids, it can be a fun stage. Work and stress? Sure. But, they are really coming into their own and developing their own ideas and passions. Beyond that, the work side of parenting is less physical now. No hoisting a small child up onto a changing table and wrestling to change that diaper. No running after a two-year-old who managed to get loose in a store. Now, you have to talk with them and find out who they are. Sometimes you need to second guess them and figure out what they are trying to pull off too. I get mad sometimes, but then remember my own teen years where I did the same kinds of things.
Letting go and letting them make their own mistakes is the hardest part of parenting now. You so desperately want to protect them from it all - but, you can't. It's all about them stretching their wings and learning to fly at this stage. They can't learn to fly inside the nest, much to my dismay. I suppose I'll get used to the idea one day!
