Raising a 13 Year Old –
Raising a 13 year old girl can be quite a challenge! The mood swings are insane, the new friends, the changing mindset, the new attitudes, the new thoughts about boys. It is scary. I don’t know how to handle all of it sometimes. She tries to get jabs in by “standing up for her sister”, she pretends she doesn’t care when she gets grounded from things – tells me she doesn’t need it or want it anyways. And, with her loving to read so much, she really doesn’t need it any of it. She’ll lock herself in her room and read all day and all night sometimes. I’ve gotten close to the point a couple times to ground her from reading but, I just can’t bring myself to do that.
It’s such a catch 22 as well because she really is such a good kid. She knows right and wrong and she lets people she is with know that she doesn’t want to be a part of doing anything wrong. I’ve witnessed it firsthand with her before. She tries so hard to be a good friend and when she feels someone is not being a good friend, she tries to kindly let them know. She is quiet but always respectful to other adults. Always trying to do the right thing. But man, at home she can be a completely different kid! I guess parenting is a lot like growing up though, we are all in this together, learning and changing and growing and teaching together. All I know is what it was like for me when I was 13, not only was that many, many years ago, things were different, times were different and all people are different. She is a lot like me and I try to remember how I felt in different instances and circumstances but it doesn’t seem to ever really work.
She’s also started walking home with a nice boy. He’s a grade higher than her. She has not really decided to talk about him with me yet, but she talks to her sister about him. At least she’s telling someone – now I just have to get them mad enough at each other so her sister spills the beans! Just kidding – I want them to be able to confide in each other. I always wished I had that when I was a kid. Hell, I wish I had that now! The attitude about everything is what really gets me the most. One minute we can be laughing and joking about something and then all of a sudden, she is irritated with me talking to her about it. We’re learning though – I’m learning to back off more and she’s trying to learn not to get so irritated with me! I’ll never stop trying to grow up J