THIS Is Why You Need To Enjoy Your Children Before They Become Teenagers

When the kids were little, and by little I mean when I had ‘two under two’, it was hard going. I suffered from mastitis (“don’t worry about the blood, it’s not affecting the baby”!); I suffered from going stir-crazy living in a too small flat.

I probably also suffered from postnatal depression, although that was never confirmed.

For some inexplicable reason, this also became the time for studying – the husband for professional accreditation, and I undertook post graduate studies. In a nutshell, life was super-busy and super-hard.

It felt like I had entered some kind of vortex, and it seemed as if it would be years before I could hope to come out the other side.

This is when ‘they’ told me that despite all the rush and hard work, I needed to make sure I took time to enjoy the children.

To try not to wish they would hurry and grow up.

For all too soon, so they said, the children will be teenagers and not wanting a bar of me.

And it will have all gone by in what seems like the blink of an eye.

I think I might finally understand what ‘they’ mean.

Please don’t get me wrong. In all honestly, it does not feel as if every minute of the last 12 years or so have flown by.

There has been days, perhaps more than a handful, when I have locked myself in my bedroom during the ‘witching hour’. Glass of vino in hand I have wondered aloud when was life going to get easier.

But yesterday I was handed a taste of the future when life does get easier – and I am not sure I want this reality after all.

My daughter turns thirteen soon and is nearing the end of year 7, her first of high school.

With every passing week we have seen less of our ‘little girl’ and more of the young woman she is becoming.

I remember reading once that every day after your children are born, they start taking steps away from you.

Yesterday felt like she took a giant leap.

The event itself was pretty innocuous.  The first really hot day of spring was forecast, and by Friday the girl was discussing plans to hit the beach with her friends.

As I said, pretty innocent in the big scheme of things.

But we are a beach family. The husband and I have lived near beaches our whole life. We took the girl for her first ‘swim’ in the Indian Ocean when she was about six weeks old (she didn’t cry, she was a natural).

While I have never been the kind of parent who can sit and play for hours with their offspring, having fun at the beach was something I was actually good at.

So beach visits have always been our family ‘thing’.

Until yesterday, when the girl chose to go to the beach with her gang, instead of going with us.

Which was difficult enough to swallow, even though I embrace her love of all things social.

What made it even harder was they chose to go to our usual spot on our favourite beach. So when we arrived later in the afternoon, we were suddenly thrown into the role of ‘uncool parents coming to spy on us’.

We had to wave discreetly at her from a distance. Even when the group walked loudly past us, we could only speak when spoken to. Our son was strictly forbidden from even approaching the girls.

I remarked to the husband that I wasn’t sure I was happy about these arrangements.

“Get used to it”, he said, “for this is the way it is going to be whether you like it or not”.

“Not” is my answer.

And now I am wishing I had listened to ‘them’ all those years ago.

Cherish your time with your babies – before they become teenagers.