I’ve watched many of my little cousins and friends’ children grow through the awkward preteen years of 9 through 12. Now I’m right in the middle of it with my own daughter. She is becoming more independent and hopefully more confident in herself. Which are excellent qualities to be building and I am so happy to see her grow into a strong girl. But with this comes stubbornness, moodiness, strong opinions, and attitudes; this has been a hard battle for us to get through. I know this is “just” the beginning, I can’t even allow myself to think of the teenage years but I believe we are in training now. Some days I have no idea where my sweet little girl went but the next day (or minute) we are back to normal and moving on.
The hardest part for me has been the decreasing time she spends with me (selfish of me, eh!). It seems like I see her at meals, when we are driving somewhere, and when I tuck her in at night. We don’t have as many quiet times together doing crafts or reading together anymore. We do get our moments but not as often. I knew these times were coming but when you are faced with them head on it kind of hits harder. I’m sure we all go through it many times in our children’s lives. It’s just not easy to take some days.
I am so proud of our daughters and hope that we’ve done a good job raising them so far and that they will make their good choices as they become more independent in this big world. There will still be moments when I just want to sit and snuggle them and pretend that they aren’t really growing up.
The storybook “Love You Forever” makes more and more sense as your child grows up ( I remember the first time I read this book I thought it was one of the nuttiest stories but it’s one of our favourite stories now).
Cherish every special moment with your little ones (and big ones!) because they will grow up in the blink of an eye!
“I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always
As long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.” Robert Munsch
Love you my sweet girls!
