My kids are 10 and 12. They've always been good kids and generally well behaved. I ask them to do something and eventually it gets done. Yes, I may have to ask more than once, but no one has perfect kids, right?
Recently I've started to hear things I have never heard before coming from my children's mouths: Why? How come? Now? When it first started happening I was too surprised to respond or I tried to explain why, how come, and when I needed them to do what I asked. Today, after I asked for something to be done and heard "why," I was shocked to hear my own voice with my mother's words.
"Because" I said, "Because I said so. Because I'm your mother, and I don't need a reason to ask you to do something."
Whoa, who is that? It's my mother. I've become my mother! You know what? It's O.K. What else would I say? It's true. They should do things because I asked them, I'm their mother and I don't need a reason to ask. Right?
But I know more is coming: "When donkeys fly" (That's a particular twist from the usual "when pigs fly" courtesy of my mother.); "As long as you live under my roof;" "I'm the mother and you're the child;" and my personal favorite that has been handed down from my grandmother and then my mother: "If I say white is black and black is white, then white is black and black is white!"
I feel like I've attained an entirely new level of parenthood. I guess it's a transition I must accept. My kids are entering the testing phase. I guess I need to transition with them. I miss my mom - she died a few years back. But now, whenever I hear one of these statements coming out of my mouth, I will think of her and smile.
And hope my kids are doing whatever I just asked them to do.
cindy
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