Change is good.

I am now the mother of two teenagers !, My son is now officially a teenager. As a mother, before, all I really had to be concerned about was to teach my children what is right/wrong and now I am keeping my fingers crossed that the next few years will be easier on my sanity and they will remember to use their brain.

Simple things like my child attending a birthday party can end in disaster. I knew the parents of the birthday child, I knew where the party was held and I knew who was attending. I made sure of all that. What I didn’t know was that one of the kids attending the party would raid his father’s liquor cabinet and bring a bottle of Vodka. What is even more disturbing is that one of the girls drank the vodka straight, as if it is a bottle of water and ended up with alcohol poisoning and had to be rushed to the hospital emergency.

It was the same when Yaya went to Spain. Most of her classmates are taller and look much older than 15 and they were able to buy alcohol from the shop and were drinking and the teachers had no idea.

Yaya told me that she didn’t want to drink either of the times because she felt it was not worth the hassle. I don’t know how many more times my child would think it isn’t worth the hassle before she caves in to peer pressure. I refuse to assume that “because she is my daughter and I have raised her well, she will not do anything bad”

And then there is ‘love’. Often times it is totally the wrong guy/gal and I am tempted to tell my children to use the bloody brain that they have. But I don’t. ( Mostly because I know, I did everything my mother told me not to ! and the last thing I want is for my children to do the exactly what I did)

Sometimes, they get their heart broken and I want to clobber the person responsible ! I wish I could protect my children from getting hurt and I know I can’t. It breaks my heart to see them looking as if the world has ended. Sometimes a bowl of chicken soup. or a trip to the mall to buy new clothes ( Yaya) works. Sometimes, nothing works and I have to resort to unorthodox methods..Last time after seeing Yaya sulking for a few days, I told her, we shall have a  pretend burial of the guy who broke her heart. Her favourite movie is ” the proposal” And I told her, I will wear a my red blanket as a cape and will do all the chanting..

We didn’t do any such thing.. but she came out of the room and told me

“Mom, you are the best mother in the world”

She then called her friends and told them what I was going to do and everyone thought it was funny !

( Honestly, I didn’t know how it would have panned out. On one side she would have accused me of being a terrible mother for suggesting such a macabre idea and on the other hand there was me, I don’t even eat meat, so I don’t have to participate in killing an animal for a meal and here I was suggesting a pretend burial !)

Yaya steals all my clothes and hates it if I  say “that top/skirt looks very familiar” I don’t know why she gets upset when she is the one wearing my clothes..but I let it go.

Some days, her room looks like Hurricane Katrina is a resident in her room. Other times, she will help arrange all the cans in the pantry. I think her moods work according to how the planets are aligned.

I was going to write about my son ! until tomorrow.

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