“Demonic Moments” and the Joys of Raising Girls
My friend Slava calls them “demonic moments” — an apt description of the anxious, emotion-fraught many we’ve endured the past few days with our darling daughter. The results of these moments are revoked privileges and what promises to be a long, long weekend at home.
Is it puberty, knocking early at life’s door? Go away, we’re not ready for you, yet. In fact, we may not ever be ready for you, if this is how it’s going to be.
As I often do, I turned to books for a solution. This time, the literature is for the girl, provided by that leech on my wallet, the American Girl store. I selected the Feelings book, about the care and keeping of your emotions, in an attempt to keep at bay the head-spinning episodes that have me reaching for the phone number of our parish priest.
Let us all bow our heads and cross our fingers; we’re at our wits’ end and good gracious, she’s not even a teenager.
I am grateful for the books produced by American Girl; they’ve gotten my daughter (and many like her) to enjoy reading. What Harry Potter did for the boy, AG is doing for the girl. Now, if J.K. Rowling would produce the volume that AG does, we’d be literarily set.
I am reading In Cold Blood. After watching Capote, I realized I’d missed it. What are you reading?
April 30th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
Hi Marijean
I am with you on the pre-hormone thing (it must start at age 6 or something these days).
I did the Capote thing in reverse - read “In Cold Blood” and watched the movie last night. Best movie I have seen in ages. Now I think I have to run out and read all of his books.
May 1st, 2006 at 7:46 pm
I have two daughters, ages 10 and 12 (almost 13) so I know how it is.
Re: your comment–CSA means community supported agriculture. You pay for weekly supply of produce from a local farm. It’s kind of expensive–$625 for 25 weeks (you get a bushel basket each week) but I’m hoping to spend less on junk and prepared food. You can pay by the month and not have to spend such a large amount all at once. The CSA I joined is at http://www.horseandbuggyproduce.com and I think there are others in the area.
December 29th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
[...] The girl had little trouble adjusting to Charlottesville, as outgoing and friendly as she is, she made friends easily. She still tears up a bit when thinking of her friends back in Missouri, but she e-mails them once in a while and feels great joy when they e-mail back. The tween years are tough for anybody, though, and she had some ups and downs. We’ve hung in there with her, though and found some solutions that restore balance in her life. Two of these are breakfast, most importantly with protein (Zuzu; this is a lesson I learned from you) and the other is an immutable schedule. If she’s to take her shower at 8pm, don’t dare suggest it at 7:59pm. She’s a creature of structure and when respected, is the most amiable child. She has grown significantly the past year, now at 5′3″ and wearing a shoe just a half size smaller than my own. She’s eagerly anticipating a grown up outing with her dad, that promises to be memorable. She’s decided, this year, that she will go to UVA when the time comes, and she will become an archeologist. She adores Thomas Jefferson. We think she’s in the right place. [...]