Conversations With a Four-Year-Old

I was sitting on the couch with my little girl, just taking some time out of my hectic day to give her my full attention. She usually just calls me mom or mommy, but the last couple of days she's been calling me mama. She says it after almost every sentence. Only, it sounds more like mawmaw (can you tell the difference). So this is what a conversation with a four-year-old sounds like:

4 yo: "There's your chick, mawmaw." She pointed to my chin.

Me: "That's not my chick, that's my chin."

4 yo: "CHIN. Ha, ha! Chick, chicken head!"

Then she gives me 5 kisses. Next she wipes them all off.

Me: "Did you just wipe off my kiss?"

4 yo: "I don't like kisses, only hugs. You have germs, mawmaw."

Then she hugs me.

4 yo: "I feel like I'm going to cry, mawmaw!"

Me: "Why, because you love me so much?"

4 yo: "Because I missed you, mawmaw!"

Me: "But I didn't go anywhere."

4 yo: "You went upstairs and I didn't know where you were! I said, 'Mawmaw! Where are you?' . You're so pretty!"

She goes from one subject right into another one! The mawmaw thing is so funny. Sometimes you just have to stop and take some time to appreciate it. It all ends too fast.

Riding in the car (again), my conversation with my 7-year-old goes like this:

7 yo: "Mom, where does the baby come from when you have a baby?"

Me: (Oh no!) "What do you mean?"

7 yo: "When you have a baby, where does the baby come out?"

Me: "Well... Uh..."

Then my 4 yo interrupted us with something. Thank you!

About 5 minutes later...

7 yo: "So mom, where does the baby come out? Does it come out of you belly button?"

Me: "Well, sometimes. What got you thinking about babies? Oh! Did you see on Full House this morning about Uncle Jesse and Aunt Becky having the twins?"

7 yo: "Yeah."

I didn't think he was mature enough for much more than that. I guess I should be better prepared about what I'm going to say the next time he asks!

Now, a conversation with an 11-year-old is not always so cute. My 11 yo is usually such a good boy. He talks politely (most of the time), gets good grades, and almost never gets in trouble. This is my kid that I worry about the least. So when I went to the mall with him, I got a good understanding of why he drives my 14-year-old crazy sometimes. We go into the mall to get his haircut. He was walking really fast. Innocently, I just thought he wanted to hurry to get it done. I tried to get next to him, but every time I got next to him, he just walked faster ahead of me. Then I realized what he was doing. He was embarrassed to walk next to me! How could this happen? He's suppose to be my easy going kid! I thought he was better than that! Also, how could he be embarrassed of me? I thought I was a cool mom! I consciously try not do that to my kids.

I remember being embarrassed of my mom, when I was young and vowed I would never do that to my kids (sorry mom). I would never kiss them in front of their friends in the school cafeteria! I'd try not to treat them like babies. I remember how it felt! Now I'm disappointed. So what did I do when my son walked ahead of me? Well I ran up to him and grabbed his arm and made him walk arm in arm with me (OK, I guess I did embarrass him now). I told him if he didn't walk with me then he would just have to hold my hand. That didn't work. He's 140lbs. and just wiggled away from me.

When we got home, my daughter was telling my how I have to pick her up from school every Tuesday and Wednesday from her new school club that she's in, and he said, "What? Mom has to pick you up from school Tuesday and Wednesday because you have detention!". My husband only heard this last part and said, "What? You have detention?". "NO!", I said. Now I can understand how he can annoy my overly sensitive 14-year-old!

It must just be the middle school thing. My daughter went through this when she started sixth grade, too. She thought she was all of a sudden big deal. She also got out of that real fast when I stopped letting her do many things. I always tell her that I will let her do a lot of things with her friends if she tells me who she's with, where they are, exactly what they're doing, and talks nice. If I can trust her 100%, she can do most anything. It's really worked. She even told me recently that she doesn't have to hide anything from me because I let her do whatever she wants. I told her it's because I trust her, "So don't EVER disappoint me!". Once she was walking around outside with her friend and they ran into some boys they knew . (It's not as bad as it sounds. She was pretty close to home and I knew the boys and they were just walking down the street.) When it was time for me to pick her up, her friend asked her, "What are you going to tell your mom?". My daughter told her, "I'm going to tell my mom what we did, because I know my mom won't be mad!". Meanwhile her friend concocted a big story to tell her mom.

Take time out to really listen to the little ones. They say the sweetest things. It all ends so quickly. The teenage years will be there before you know it. On the brightside, those middle school "tough" years pass quickly, too, and they soon become your best friends.