Sunrise over the Caribbean, where my husband and I honeymooned

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Tween in the Tre-Howse


In my house, there lives a tween. Tween, the word that has been developed to describe a kid who is no longer a young child nor an adolescent teen. They fall through the cracks, somewhere in be-'tween.' I have been doing research on raising a child for almost 11 years now. We all know that being a mother means being an expert in research. My research has led me to a place of complete confusion and I have discovered that I basically know nothing. But what I do know is that having a tween in the house is challenging to say the least. There are days when my son pushes my buttons to the very max; days when it takes everything in me not to take my disciplinary measures back to the "old school." "Go in the yard and pick out your whipping stick boy!" But instead I use new school techniques like using my words (sometimes quite loudly) and providing consequences. (how many times can I take away his psp)? As challenging as my tween can be, having the opportunity to watch him evolve into his own person is amazing. Sure, he's pushing my buttons and challenging his limits, but at the same time he is coming into his own. There are moments when he does something and all I want to do is laugh. And sometimes I do. We laugh together. But there are those times when, as a parent you have to hold back the laughter for the time being and dream of the time when your tween turns adult and you can share the story with them on a lighter note. One such story of ours started recently with a call from the principal. "I'd like to meet with you regarding a situation involving your son and the school computer." Tweens and computers, a whole new dynamic in the modern child raising challenges. (note to self: Tweens and computers: Subject for another post another day). Turns out, the school had key stroke monitoring of the book report website the kids were using. Unbeknown to my son who decided to type in a swear word to impress his buddies. A bad swear. The swear that starts with the letter F. Now mind you, I do not approve of the use of this language by a ten year old nor do I ever use the F word myself (yeah right). But boys will be boys and I know the boys are attempting to use fowl language whenever they can. The fact that my son typed it on the computer brings a whole new meaning to the word and to the NO TOLERANCE policies adopted by schools these days. BUT, in my son's defense, he typed the word, thus key stroke evidence, then gave it a little thought and ultimately, within minutes, made the very good decision to delete the word so it was never officially published. No other children saw it for which I am very grateful. Anyway, the point of this babbling is to get to the funny part. It is the morning of Dooms day.....an appointment with the principal. I am in the bathroom blow drying my hair when my son the tween comes to the door and says, "Mom, what should I wear today?" Strange question coming from a kid who is only just beginning to care a tweeny bit about fashion. "I don't care what you wear, just put some clothes on." I say. "Okay Mom." a few minutes go by and he returns. As I am taking a sip of my coffee, he appears in the doorway with a big smile and black long sleeve t-shirt on with these words printed on the front: "WASN'T ME!" Resisting my urge to spit my coffee all over the bathroom and burst out laughing I said "Cute Tyler. Go change."

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