Oh the world of tween emotions. I think it’s only beginning. My daughter is 11 and developing both p
hysically and emotionally. Where has my baby gone or where is she going? She is growing into a beautiful preteen but wow those emotions! Tonight it was over the simple act of taking a shower.
Showers at our house for her have always been a struggle. But combined with the tears and fatigue of the tween hormones I think we are in for a doozie. I can’t say that I handled it as well as I could have – in fact I’m sure I made errors…plenty of them. I trusted then I reminded. I reminded and then I nagged. I raised my voice and then I threatened punishment. Then I took the TV time away for the rest of the night. Her response to my “go take a shower” was a simple and sweet No. AARRRGGG! Again it was “No” and “I don’t care” to just about anything she was told to do and mentioned would be punishment. At this point 30 minutes later, she had now lost her allowance. $11 gone down the drain (pun intended) and she was still stating that she “didn’t care”. Ugh.
I got her to start talking and this was very tough among the tears. She is afraid of upsetting her Dad, afraid of disappointments, but mostly just teary with no explainable reason. Picture your worst PMS days with the whole world closing in on you and this is what I imagine she is feeling. It breaks my heart in many pieces to see her like this but I don’t know what to do. I talked with her for quite a while and thought we were to a breaking point. Again, it’s time for a shower.
Long story short, 1 hour and 15 minutes later, no shower and a final threat from both GG and I that if she can’t take regular showers she can’t play spring softball. Her first practice was tonight so the fear in her eyes was evident. Finally…something that she cared about. She headed off to bed with the final words….she would need to have a shower before we leave tomorrow at 7:30 am or softball was done. She would not be playing. As tough as that is, it is a truth that I will follow through. Heck…it may even make our lifes easier in more ways than one.
But I’m not so sure I can do this for the next 3-5 years. But then again I don’t have a lot of choice do I? Nope, I’m here for her for life.
