Mom, I Have Arrived

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