I think Fiona and Ramona may have been switched at birth. I would like to trade in my Esprit bag for a guide on how to raise a satanist in black lipstick please.
Mother of a 12yo daughter over here... I felt this so much! I was a late bloomer, shy, and never super fashionable. My daughter is tall, developed, headstrong, and friggin' gorgeous. If we were the same age, I'd be totally intimidated by her. Hell, I'm her mother and I'm often totally intimidated by her.
She is also the child of a white mom and Black dad, neither of whom will ever completely understand what it's like to be caught between two racial identities and never entirely fit either one. She loves to tell me, "You just don't get it," and sometimes she's 100% right. But it's OK. We don't have to completely understand our children, as long as we try to mostly understand them, and we don't have to like them all the time. At this stage of the game, I'm mostly focused on muddling through.
She loves being in middle school?!? My eyes popped on that one. B/c I may be 51 years old now but inside, I'm still scarred from my middle (& high) school years. Was definitely not on the IN and even now, it's inconceivable to me that someone could actually enjoy those years. (Which is kinda funny, now that I type it out, b/c my soon-to-graduate-high-school youngest son has actually been enjoying HS too.)
Ohhh this nails something that I had a lot with one of my sons when he was younger. Not so much the fashion choices (we are both very vanilla, clothes-wise) but he had (still does) this ENORMOUS facility for rubbing along with people and was just a super-popular kid. (I remember taking him for a walk past the school when he was off school with a virus, and his classmates literally ran up to the fence to say hello to him, like this huge cluster of 8 year olds all cheering and smiling - totally weird if you were a rather isolated kid like I was.) I didn't resent it, but it was absolutely fascinating to watch it unfold as his mum - and to see (from his perspective) that being super-popular brings its own burdens (he felt massively responsible for other people's feelings and responses to him ALL of the time). It is, as you say, such a constant revelation that our kids are... not the same as us!
I am so there with you. I was a clueless band dork in middle/high school and somehow my daughter is a gorgeous cheerleader who is WELL aware of trends. So weird.
I think Fiona and Ramona may have been switched at birth. I would like to trade in my Esprit bag for a guide on how to raise a satanist in black lipstick please.
Mother of a 12yo daughter over here... I felt this so much! I was a late bloomer, shy, and never super fashionable. My daughter is tall, developed, headstrong, and friggin' gorgeous. If we were the same age, I'd be totally intimidated by her. Hell, I'm her mother and I'm often totally intimidated by her.
She is also the child of a white mom and Black dad, neither of whom will ever completely understand what it's like to be caught between two racial identities and never entirely fit either one. She loves to tell me, "You just don't get it," and sometimes she's 100% right. But it's OK. We don't have to completely understand our children, as long as we try to mostly understand them, and we don't have to like them all the time. At this stage of the game, I'm mostly focused on muddling through.
She loves being in middle school?!? My eyes popped on that one. B/c I may be 51 years old now but inside, I'm still scarred from my middle (& high) school years. Was definitely not on the IN and even now, it's inconceivable to me that someone could actually enjoy those years. (Which is kinda funny, now that I type it out, b/c my soon-to-graduate-high-school youngest son has actually been enjoying HS too.)
Ohhh this nails something that I had a lot with one of my sons when he was younger. Not so much the fashion choices (we are both very vanilla, clothes-wise) but he had (still does) this ENORMOUS facility for rubbing along with people and was just a super-popular kid. (I remember taking him for a walk past the school when he was off school with a virus, and his classmates literally ran up to the fence to say hello to him, like this huge cluster of 8 year olds all cheering and smiling - totally weird if you were a rather isolated kid like I was.) I didn't resent it, but it was absolutely fascinating to watch it unfold as his mum - and to see (from his perspective) that being super-popular brings its own burdens (he felt massively responsible for other people's feelings and responses to him ALL of the time). It is, as you say, such a constant revelation that our kids are... not the same as us!
I am so there with you. I was a clueless band dork in middle/high school and somehow my daughter is a gorgeous cheerleader who is WELL aware of trends. So weird.
My girl is only 3 and cant get enough of Taylor! https://open.substack.com/pub/gregorypettys/p/for-my-daughter?r=f1gey&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web