My oldest is at that age. He is at that age when the pod people take your little children and replace them with aliens. He entered puberty much younger than his peers. His voice started to change at ten and a half. He will be 14 in September and already has to shave. The pod people took him earlier than I had hoped. He has made his share of the beginning of stupid choices of a long line of stupid choices that teens make during that wonderfully horrid period called puberty. He is at that age where he is wanting to be treated like an adult. He is at that age when it is no longer cool for your mom to share stories about you.
My youngest still loves when I share little conversations we may have during the day on Facebook or Twitter. And now that he is 10, he is on a daily basis checking himself for signs of puberty since his older brother started puberty at 10. He just can’t wait to become a man! Both my oldest and I tell him, “DUDE! You so don’t want puberty. It SUCKS!”
The following is a snippet of a conversation between my oldest and myself from the other day. It starts off with the following comment I made on Facebook:
I wish I were 13 again so I can paint my nails green and orange!
Which turned into the following conversation and subsequent post on Facebook:
Kid (reaching into his pocket for his Dr. Pepper chapstick): Damn it! I wrecked my nail polish!
Me: Ah! My emo child!
Kid: Mom, that’s not nice! That’s not cool!
He sees me post this on Facebook and follows it with this (which also gets posted on Facebook):
Kid: Mom there should be a law against posting what your kids say!
Me: *chuckle*
So I refrain as much as possible from talking about the joy that is my oldest child, because unlike my youngest’s take on talking about him, it’s just not cool. However, there are times like today when I just cannot help it because I am a very proud mom. Despite the pod people kidnapping him (I have the exact date circles on my calender when this historic event took place) he is still my loving son. We are very close and he isn’t afraid to tell me anything or ask me anything. He brags to anyone that will hear about what a cool mom he has that he can come to me for anything and even so I may not always like what he has to say or what he may ask, we still talk about it openly and honestly. His friends make comments on my crazy hair colours and he smiles and says, “Yeah, my mom is weird like that. I think it’s great.” And then he comes home to tell me and we laugh about it.
He has started his first job a couple of weeks ago. Today he brought home his first pay cheque. I wish I was making the money he is now when I was 13 let me tell you. Now instead of spending it like crazy as many 13 going on 20 year olds would do he asked me if he could take his brother to Walmart. Of course I said yes because what 13 year old wants their 10 year old brother tagging along with him? I think it is great that he wants to involve his younger brother in things. I sure as hell didn’t want to involve my younger sister in things at that age and we are much closer in age than my boys. They arrive home a few hours later for my oldest to inform me of the following. The money that he took with him to Walmart was used to purchase: a new pair of runners for himself as he needs a new pair; a sleeping bag for his brother as he is going on his first summer camp experience on Monday and he didn’t get him anything for his birthday in April; and two nerf foam swords that my youngest was eyeing at Walmart the last time he took him there, so that they have something they can do together which they both can enjoy. Let me tell you, it brought a tear to my eye.
My boy is becoming a real man. And even so it makes me oh so proud, I want my babies back.
julia sherred
