The two sides of a seven year old girl....

I am not going to survive it... Puberty of a girl, that is... I can barely survive the yo-yo moods of a seven year old.. Heaven help me when she turns 13!!! About a week ago I definitely felt extremely qualified to become the recipient of the "worst Mom in the whole wide world" award... I made Maria get on the school bus, sobbing and mad and thinking that I hated her... Yes, those were her words.. "You just HATE ME!!! I just KNOW IT!!!!" All over a short-sleeve shirt.... Let me start from the beginning... One evening last week Maria asked me if she could wear a short-sleeved shirt on gym day that week because she got hot running around... No problem, perfectly understandable! Well gym day came, I forgot it was gym day and laid out a... (gasp!) long-sleeved shirt for Maria to wear.. (hey, it had been chilly the past few days!) Well she got dressed and forgot about gym day as well until about 15 minutes before we had to leave and catch the bus... All of a sudden she says in all urgency and in an accusatory tone "Mommy, its gym day, you said I could wear a SHORT sleeved shirt!!!!" Me, looking at the time, looking at her already dressed and ready to go, said sorry, I forgot, you're already dressed and next time she can remind me BEFORE we are getting ready to leave... Well that did it... It's like a switch flipped in her.. All of a sudden I had on my hands a screaming, crying, highly upset seven year old, running to her room, slamming her door, sobbing away all the injustices of the world... Well when any of my kids start fussing and throwing fits when they don't get what they want, then I am even more adamant that they won't get it! Try explaining this to a sobbing child who is convinced that you broke a promise and hate them... Anyway, for the rest of the day I was thinking about her.. wondering if she was still mad at me... (and as it turned out the day turned out to be kinda hot... she probably was sweltering!!) When I picked her up later that evening it was very apparent that the whole episode was most likely more upsetting for me than her... She was my sweet little Maria again, no inkling of the creature she had morphed into just that morning was to be found.... And as I was tucking her into bed that evening she called me back in on her own and apologized for fussing and throwing a fit that morning... Which was very nice to hear... So through all of the tears the lesson was learned...

What I am wondering is, if at seven years old, I already have Maria screaming at me, slamming doors, thinking I hate her, how am going to live through age 13??? I am already envisioning her running out the door, hopping on the back her 20 year old druggy, biker-boyfriend's motorcycle, and doing all sorts of terrible things... Diligence, Honesty, Communication, has to be the key... I am going to do the best I can do, try to remember what it is like to be a kid, pre-teen, teen, and hope and pray it is enough!!

And as for right now, I am going to enjoy my sweet, little girl that Maria is 99% of the time... And for that 1% of time when she is "some other child that I don't recognize", well, I am going to do the best I can to get through it and lay the groundwork down for when she hits puberty! Wish me luck!!!