Thirteen

Today it begins. Happy Birthday, C! The warning bells started going off a few years back as friends became mothers of teens, but they all had "big kids". For Sylvia to be the mom of a teen hits closer to home since our three eldest are only months apart, and we shared much of the early years of our youngest children. How can my children's honorary "other mother" be the parent of a teen when our kids are all in the same age range? (I was hoping there had been a mistake.) L's birthday is only weeks away. It's lurking mere days before Christmas to confirm the beginning of our years as mothers of teenagers. Sylvia will be the mother of two teens by the end of the month.
While C and L are hardly the first, or last, children ever to turn 13, they symbolically usher in the teen years for me when a new style of parenting will be needed. The years of ever-increasing freedom, independence, and personal responsibility have arrived. If we do our jobs well, these young people will grow further away from us daily. I think parenting may be the only relationship human beings engage in knowing that the ultimate goal is to grow apart over time as our offspring attain their individuality and independence. Hopefully, I will be more accustomed to the idea by March when the first of my own turns 13.

The challenges of this herd of teens and soon-to-be-teens are going to keep us all on our toes in the coming years, but at least we are rid of baby-proof outlet covers. (One was still lurking in an infrequently used outlet here.) There is good news, I have twelve years to get this down. My youngest will not exit her teen years until 2020. I think I can work with that time frame.