Expiration Date...

Join us in welcoming our new Chesco mom contributor Kristen...

My daughter just turned 10. This is alarming to me in many ways.

1) My daughter is 10. (I know, I already said that).
2) I have been a parent for 10 years.
3) My daughter is approaching teenagerhood at an alarming rate.

Number 3 is the most frightening part, because I fear that the onset of her tween-hood means that I am rapidly approaching the expiration date on my child thinking I am even the tiniest bit cool.

Not that I am that cool anyway, but the key is that right now she THINKS I am cool. And soon she won't.

I wonder what it will be about me that horrifies the teenaged her.

Will my hair be wrong?
Are the waists on my jeans to high? Too low?
Are my shoes too sensible?
Do I say "groovy" too much? (I don't say groovy at all...but maybe I'll start...)

Will it be my insistence on tooth brushing? Vegetables? Sleep?

I guess there is no way of knowing what I will do that will show her in an irrevocable way that her mom isn't the paragon of fabulousness that she thought I was. There are so many ways I could go wrong.

I was utterly uncool as a teenager. Braces (with headgear), glasses, no fashion sense whatsoever. An annoying tendency to correct my teachers. No social skills. Weird hair.

I am better now (although I am sure there are those who would dispute that). And of course, my kids think I am an all-knowing goddess. They willingly accept the clothing I pick for them. They talk to me. They share their music with me. They think I am funny.

They tell me I am the best mommy ever. I like that part a lot.

But these days are numbered. I just know it. One day soon, she will look at me and see someone different. Someone more fallible. Someone more human. Someone wearing the wrong kind of jeans. With weird hair.

Something more like what I really am. Which on some level is good.

She needs to see that. It's part of my job.

But there are parts of my job that aren't all that fun.

Like the parts where you need to help the kids see beyond the illusions of their childhood and open their eyes to the harsh realities of the world.

Like trans fats, cleaning toilets, and the fact that their mom isn't all that cool.