I didn’t even realize my older kids were tweens until just recently. For some reason, in my head, I thought tween meant eleven and twelve years old – not, EIGHT to TWELVE! That means I’ve had tweens for a few years!
Just like our life with “two under two,” we’re in another phase – “life with tweens.” My oldest is ten and the middle child will be nine in a few weeks. They definitely don’t need mom and dad as much as they did when they were younger. In fact, if they do, it’s usually to ask us to drop them off at someone’s house.
There are many things I’m getting used to in this stage.
First, my daughter seems to know more about current music than I do. And I listen to the radio, Spotify and Pandora A LOT. She will sing along to everything and I’m looking at her, wondering how does she know all of these songs? She’s like “oh, I saw it on musically!”
Um … OK … wait, what?
Oh, and nothing makes you feel old like taking your tweens to the Taylor Swift concert. Like, I knew and saw Taylor Swift before y’all were even born when she was an up and coming artist. And now, y’all are looking at me like I’m crazy and embarrassing you when I’m singing at the top of my lungs and dancing at her show?
Same with social media and texting. At least they have fun talking to me. Here’s a recent snap and response between me and my daughter on SnapChat.
I try to keep it fun, but sometimes forget that my kids are on there too and they ask why I post so many pictures of my food. LOL.
My daughter also just sent me a text the other day with directions on how to “floss like a boss” (and I don’t mean the hygiene type of floss!). Apparently, mom is really bad at the floss dance so she’s helping me up my skills. I have a test coming up soon to see if I practiced.
She also taught her grandmother how to use emojis and save pictures to her phone. I was wondering why my mother-in-law was sending me responses that were emojis. I’m also certain my daughter can make better YouTube videos than I can, no matter how hard I try. She has also asked for an Instagram page, which is a hard no from me at least for a few more years.
It’s also almost impossible to get a picture with all three kids lately. The tweens will either make a face or not even want to take a picture at all. I’ve completely given up on picking out their outfits as well, much less shopping for clothes without them. I did manage to get a good picture of all three at the beach this past weekend so I won’t be surprised if this is the best picture I got all year (and will put on the holiday card!).
Also, we had several firsts for the holidays.
Let’s start with Halloween. This was the first year all three kids didn’t go trick-or-treating together with me. However, we were all in the same neighborhood. My daughter is the social butterfly and wanted to go with the large group of neighbors. My son invited a friend over and they walked through our neighborhood with her dad, while I took the three-year-old slowly from door to door.
Then the older two let me know they knew Santa isn’t real. Um, WHAT? I knew I didn’t have much longer on that one, but figured I at least had this year. I suppose the bright side is I’ll have some help with the elf next year. However, they were surprised Christmas morning when the Santa sacks weren’t under the tree. This mama figured if they knew Santa wasn’t real, I didn’t need to bother, especially when all the kids wanted were items that fit in their stockings (which they got).
Lastly, for New Year’s Eve, my daughter asked if she could go to her friend’s house to spend the night so she didn’t even spend New Year’s with us. It’s OK though. I got a SnapChat at midnight wishing me a Happy New Year.
I’m definitely trying to enjoy this tween stage of life with my kids. You know, while they still want to talk to me. Hopefully, they will continue to do so in their teen years. I’m definitely not ready for that phase of life just yet.
