My High School Freshman & I are BFFs
By the end of the summer, I was just about over my fourteen
year old daughter. The heavy sighs, the constant complaints, the instigation of squabbles with her younger sister, even her facial expressions were on my last
nerve. A week before school resumed, I
dropped her off at her aunt’s house in Baltimore to help with her new nephew.
“Ahhhhh, a teen-free week,” I gloated to my mother over the phone.
“She’s nowhere close to being as obnoxious as you were, you know.”
“Yes, I know Mom. I know.”
It’s true. I took the cake, the ribbon and the trophy in the Miss Teen Bitch Pageant every year I was eligible but I had legitimate issues. My daughter? Hah. She lives a charmed life. Neither of her parents were ever clergy and she has a wardrobe full of nice clothes. She’s never had to be a latch key kid, from a divorced family or get to know, and later hate, a stepfather. Besides all of that, I’m a cool mom! Alas, none of this won me a press pass into her middle school life; however, since she’s started high school, we’ve had a different relationship. Now, we’re kind of …almost...BFFs.
In middle school, I was lucky to be grunted at in the morning but now my teen asks for my opinion on her outfit, thanks me for packing her lunch and yesterday, be still my heart because I’ve been waiting years for this, she asked me to braid her hair. And that’s just before school! After school, she greets me with a smile and wants to tell me all about her day. A smile, people, with no fishing involved. She tells me about friend drama, school happenings and wants to do things like cook, shop and just hang out with me. I’m not going to lie; the thought of alien possession has crossed my mind as a viable explanation but I think I’m just going to go with this one a little longer.
My guess is that she’s finally realized that I’ve been right about everything all along and now is longing to make up for lost time and spend her high school years close to home, getting the best possible grades and being completely transparent with her mother and father. Or maybe, she’s at a brand new high school, doesn’t have many friends yet and has unexpectedly latched on to me for support. Yeah, I know, the second option sounds more likely. Perhaps soon, she’ll be back to grunting, rolling her eyes and playing the opposite game but for now, for however fleeting it is to be, my high school freshman and I are BFFs …and I’m soaking in every single delicious second of it.
Kimberly Petro writes about her life in The Ding Dang Woods on her personal blog, Petroville. Come visit. An original DC Metro Moms post.
