The one word I could use to describe my family ( children and I)would be “funny”. We use humor to get at each other and there is never any maliciousness in this random personal attacks.

The other day Yaya had science exam and she was obviously very stressed because she needs to get an A to be eligible for the academic achievement gold medal at the end of the year. And she told me, “mom, I am thinking of quitting studies after grade 10”

“Sure” I replied.

I knew she had something up her sleeves and waited for her to continue.

5 seconds later when she noticed that I am not continuing the conversation, She said

“I think I will join the circus, I will get to travel and see all the countries and there is no stress”

“True, you could be the clown and you know you are good at tripping on your own feet even if you are standing on a flat ground”

“But Mom, I am doing the random gravity check, for all you know gravity could be switched off and you need people like me to know if the gravity is still working”

And we laughed and laughed and I could see that Yaya wasn’t as stressed as she was before.

When my son came back from the camp, he updated his fb profile photo. My son is a very handsome boy ( yes, all mothers feel the same way !), but in this particular case, his face looked like a gangster having  constipation ( half grimace, half angry look )  his hat turned to one side,headphones ( those DJ type) around his neck and a dog chain to complete the whole ganagsta style.

He was laying down next to me and was reading when I saw on my fb page that he updated his profile photo and I told him” toothless, that really is a sad photo of you”

Until now, if I had said anything like that, my son would stare in to my eyes for a few seconds and say, “mom, is there any cure for blindness? or Mom, it is time you got new glasses, or stop being so vain mom, it is time you accepted you are old and started wearing your grandma spectacles” etc,

But not this time.

He jumped off the bed, told me ” I hate you mom, you are so mean” and plenty of other mean things with the same theme as to how horrible his mother is and how,instead of supporting her son’s self esteem, how detrimental I am to his health and well being”

Then I heard him slamming the door to his room, knowing very well that the one thing I hate the most in my life is slamming the door.

I did get up from my bed to go and yell at my son. I was that annoyed. What was the need for this much of drama. What does he mean by saying that I am detrimental to his health and well being. I am his mother for goodness sake.

Then I remembered my son will be a teenager two weeks from now and we have reached a stage where anything I say or do will be taken as a good thing or bad thing according to how the planets are aligned. It is now my turn to walk carefully, knowing very well that my son will be going through a tough time trying to understand where my limits end and where his begins.

Late that night he came to my room to give me my goodnight kiss and I could see that he was crying. It broke my heart mostly because I never wanted to hurt his feeling, yet I did.

“I am sorry” I said

“me too Mom, I am so sorry I was mean to you, I don’t know why I feel this way” He said

” Welcome to teenage years” I told him.

For now everything is alright, but I have no idea what is the next thing that will trigger another door slamming.