Parenting is such a strange phenomena, one minute you can barely see your child's head over the countertop as he wobbles to a standing position trying desperately to walk, the next he's running out the door telling you he'll be back before jumping on his bike to ride like a wild thing around the yard. It's one of those wonders of the world that you just don't expect because it's not up there with the pyramids or the famed hanging gardens of Babylon. But, it is a wonder none the less, watching your child grow up.
What makes this so fascinating to me is the fact that you just don't notice it's going by. As you live your life with them, they grow right next to you and you hardly notice until one day you're shopping in a different (read more expensive) section of the store because they've gotten awfully picky about what they will and will not wear.
With the law of balance in place you'd think that with this increased pickiness in the clothing realm that something else would have to give, like the pickiness in the eating realm. Not so, the hoped for lessening of this challenging, and sometimes downright embarrassing food pickiness, does not go away as other types of pickiness emerge it just seems to go bipping along as always.
My son is now a double digit kid, a preteen if you will and I can hardly believe the difference a couple of months has made in our lives. It all started before he hit the ripe old age of 10 and has continued ever since. Plus, the changes don't just include a preference in clothing. He started to notice girls (not as much as his friends, thank God) but the track has been laid for the future roller coaster ride of relationships. I just hope in this he will be one of those really late bloomers. Unfortunately though, during last school year he started coming home and talking about little Miss Olive Oyl, so I think I only have a matter of time before they start calling at all hours.
The mass marketing to preteens is even more intense than it is when they're little wee ones, if you can believe it. So, the pressure to buy, buy, buy is ever more present. My son has always been a shopper, a gene he got from his grandmother, not me. I'm sure along with his truck gene that almost every male seems to have, there's a gene carrying a little shopping bag with a money sign on it. Following him around a store, I find myself feeling like a preteen myself. Memories emerge of the uncountable times I would follow my own mother around stores, shopping until my legs ached and praying that it would soon be over so I could go home and read my book.
It's not much different now except I am the keeper of the wallet and the ultimate last word on what is purchased and what is not. Of course, I try to steer him towards the sale items, clearance racks and the thought process of, "you need to be wise when shopping and try to get the biggest bang for your buck."
Of course, that doesn't mean he'll listen to me. I don't know about girls, but boys at this age seem to hone in on developing that annoying man trait of selective hearing that is impossible to nip in the bud. If I had a dime for every time he says "I didn"t hear you' or "What?" I'd be very wealthy woman by now, and, he's only been a preteen for a couple of months.
Even with all these subtle and not so subtle changes, my son still likes Lego (particularly Bionicles), hugs from his mom and his well loved bear, which just goes to show you, that although everything changes, even our little wonders, some things stay the same.
