Mayhem- My Daughter's Proclomation

The teenage years can prove to be some of the most challenging and the most rewarding. Mayhem is simply a way of life as pre-teens enter your home. With hormones coursing through their veins, they are beginning to come into their own beings. The lessons and foundations that have been laid for them are hopefully in place…now they begin building their lives through decisions and consequences.

With two teenagers and one pre-teen in my house, to say my home was filled with mayhem would be an understatement. On the flip side of that, to balance out the mayhem was the knowledge that my children could discuss anything with me. There was one simple rule…”You may talk with me; You may not talk at me…leave the attitude at the door”

My daughter, being the oldest and only girl, and as boys and girls speak totally different languages…found this easy to follow until she was about 15 years old. Once she turned 15 and for the next year and a half, we were at each others throat day and night. If I said up, she said down. If I said red, she said blue. Finally, one day we sat down in the living room and I asked her, “What is going on with you!!!!” With eyes wide and a clenched jaw she replied, “I can’t wait to get out of here!”

I looked at her and burst out with laughter. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing!

“Good,” I said, “then I have done my job. I have raised you to be an independent young woman. You aren’t suppose to want to stay here with me forever. What you are feeling is perfectly normal.”

We sat there for about an hour and talked about how I felt when I was her age and she told me more of the way she had been feeling.

Things began to improve…oh there were still bumps! This was a young girl…my young girl…becoming a young woman…her own young woman. She had to maneuver through life’s up and downs to find her way.

Mayhem is nothing more than growing pains. Without it we would be stagnant in our own lives. It teaches us to be better than we were and prepares us for what we are yet to become.

Motherhood- Potty Patrol

Potty training of boys and girls is a unique and sometimes entertaining experience. When you stop to think about it, this normal bodily function becomes something we are ooohing and awing over in order to get our children to “go potty” in the big girl or big boy potty. When they master this extraordinary event, we, as proud parents, clap and whoop and holler and give high fives and gold stars!

Why wouldn’t we?…it is the passage of another stage in our children’s small lives.

Of course, we are also giving ourselves silent pats on the back for figuring out ways to get our little angels to go when they sit, or hit the target when they aim. And of course, let us not forget that many little boys, once mastering the skill of “potty training” find a tree is just as good as a toilet for certain endeavors. The training here needs to be to stand on the back side of a tree so as not to moon the audience at your father’s adult soccer game!

All too often it is the parent who is ready to train the child before the child is ready to be trained. In the end, let’s face it…you can lead a child to the potty, but you cannot make them pee or poop. Relax moms! They will learn all in good time…sit back, have a Coke and prepare for the whooping and hollering to begin. Potty patrol is all on your child’s schedule!