Teenagers the size of Redwoods

MommyLoves Dreams ~ I caught a glimpse into my near future last night.

All the kids I have known since they were in kindergarten with my oldest son are now teenagers and they are HUGE!  They are surrounding me like a grove of redwoods, heads high in the mist.  They use strange gestures and a foreign language that is a whisper from somewhere deep in my past, vaguely familiar.  I think I can communicate?  I try a little banter that echos off their trunks, but all I hear now is silence.  Their heads appear out of the mist, all eyes staring at me, faces full of confusion and pity.   I shiver and wake up.

We parents sometimes forget what it was like to grow up, or maybe we don’t want to remember some parts.  Most of us want to do things differently than our parents, and when we try . . . we realize that parenting is just as universal as growing up, and it has just as many stages and changes.

I am not going to try to speak the current teen language, I will only get, “Epic Fail, Mom.” with a sad shake of the dirty blond head that is now 3 inches closer to the clouds than mine.  If I’m 5’81/2″ and he’s only 14 years old, I’m in trouble.  He already eats like a redwood drinks, so I guess he is right on track.

When the first girl calls the house asking for my oldest, I’ll try to be ready.  I am preparing how I will act, and what I will say, in the hope that when it happens, I won’t epically fail, and crack some old folks joke that will get my kid to give me the silent treatment for at least a week.

You can use every cliche’ in the book . . . what goes around, comes around . . . circle of life . . . pick one that fits, but we all will be just as terrified, proud, anxious and uncertain as our parents were when our time comes for our kids to become young adults.

OMG, what if a girl calls for my 11 year old first?!