Angeline is off to summer camp tomorrow morning at 4:30 am (ouch!) and we’re in the midst of “OMG, I need this, I need that, what am I forgetting” packing.
Today was supposed to be a super happy, family bonding, fun day before she left for camp. Not so much. When planning this spectacular day, I forgot that my child is a very delicate species: a preteen. She’ll be 13 this fall. She has the raging hormones to prove it. She’s seriously driving me insane. Last night she threw what I will call a tantrum, solely because I took her cousin to lunch with me and a friend while Angeline was off visiting her other cousins. She cried. I had to shake some sense into her (metaphorically, of course) and tell her that she was overreacting and needed to stop for a minute and think about how she was acting about such a simple thing. She finally calmed down and a few hours later, I got a super cute little apology letter & picture.
See, the thing is, I don’t think she can really help her emotions right now. She’s growing up so fast. She’s growing from a girl into a woman right before my eyes. Last night she came frantically running into my room to show me pink lines on her hips – stretch marks. She is growing so fast that she is literally outgrowing her own skin. Her emotions are all over the place. I don’t know how to make that any easier on her, but I am trying very, very hard to make her understand that she has to try and control the way she handles those emotions. She has to learn to control her outbursts.
Throughout the day I have had to stop her and tell her, “You are being disrespectful. Watch the way you talk to me.”
and she shuts up. Usually. Well, maybe she doesn’t stop it but she lowers her voice to where I can’t hear her…which, if I am going to be honest, that’s good enough for me.
Since she is going to be gone for four weeks, I am a little apprehensive about what is going to be waiting for me when I pick her up at the camp bus drop off in July. She’s already almost as tall as I am – which, admittedly, isn’t saying a whole lot, I’m 5′ 3″ – I think she’ll be as tall as me by the time she comes home. She’s recently hit an insane growth spurt (thus the stretch marks) and has outgrown all of the new underthings, shoes and jeans I bought her at Christmas. Hell, the new Levis I bought her during the Macy’s Memorial Day Weekend sale that she wanted me to hem – they already fit her perfectly.
Frankly, I’m a little freaked out by all of this. This morning I had to teach my daughter how to shave her bikini line. I’m not ready for this! I don’t really have a choice, do I?
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