Call it whatever you want...

PreTeens ~ I don't recall ever demanding to be called this. I don't recall being 12 and feeling that everything about my schedule was up to me to make. I just remember that boys were "cute" ~ they weren't "hot" ~ they were "hot" when I was 16.

At 12 I was listening to Air Supply and Chicago. I was watching "America's Funniest Home Videos" on prime-time TV. I watched "Three's Company" wondering why my mother wouldn't let me. "Jaws" scared me to death.

Maybe I was sheltered. Since I went to a private Christian School, I wasn't exposed to anything, really. I remember seeing the "F" word not knowing what it meant, but I knew it was bad. When I started the 9th grade and moved to the public school, I almost fainted when I actually heard the word. I remember the shock not believing I had actually heard that word.

I now have my very own "PreTeen". 12 going on 30. She censors the radio now. A song will come on and she'll change the station real quick and say "....you don't want to hear that".
Huh? ANY song she listens to I wouldn't know if it's good or bad -- I cannot for the life of me figure out what they are saying -- I'll catch 1 sentence and that's about it. "In 'Da Club".....something about a birthday and we're going to the club. She says I don't need to know the rest of it and to stop trying to sing it.

Maybe it's because I live in "hick-ville" and people talk so slow around here. Since we moved here in 2000, I have had to learn to adjust to the slower pace of life -- I had no choice. Everyone drives slow, works slow, talks slow..... not to mention the fact that I am now in my mid-30's and part of it may be that my mind is just slowing down. I hate having to pay so much attention to everything to just understand. I don't understand the music and I certainly don't understand her or her mood swings.

I honestly think that "PreTeens" have their own language....and planet.

When I was 12, I was a cheerleader. All of the girls were cheerleaders. We didn't have a choice. It was "P.E.". Because we were to keep our bodies covered at all times, we wore a cross of pants/skirt. 2" below the knee that looked like a dress but weren't. Made of polyester. We had to wear a "dickey" under our SWEATER long sleeve top. At the time, none of us girls knew any better - we didn't really realize how stupid we looked...not that we had a choice in the matter.

So, after an experience like that when I was 12, must explain why I am so confused when I take her shopping to keep finding shirts that are made of "Kleenex". Ummm, how many times am I allowed to wash the shirt before it dissolves into nothing?!? And the sayings on the front of these shirts are so misleading ~ made to be interpreted however you want.

I am learning to adjust to this. It is so hard to parent a child who knows what a dork you were when you were their age. I don't dare show her pictures of me in my cheerleading outfit.

And when did I get so stupid? Was their a specific time or event when the a stupid sign appeared when she looked at me? How come it's dorky when her dad says "dude"? Since when do neither of us know how to dress ourselves? Since when we say the word "no" is to be interpreted to mean "yes"? Why can't I say the words "that's cool" without being looked at like I'm "trying to be young again"? She doesn't think a thing about eating crackers in her bed or ever putting her clothes in the hamper -- she just keeps wearing them and wearing them until I have to peel them from her body. PreTeen....too complex to understand.

I just hope my son who is 8, will always want to give mom a goodbye kiss.......at school.
(yeah, right) I hope he will always ask me a million questions and count on me to know everything.