What about now?

Not too long ago I was a young mom with young kids and my days were filled with managing, organizing, wiping, cleaning, wiping something else, and successfully getting everyone into bed at naptime and at bedtime. 

Now I am a middle aged mom with middle aged kids and, thank the stars, I am no longer wiping anything for anyone.  But now I am in a different stage of life and I am not finding too many sources of help here.  There are a gazillion blogs about being the mommy, but what happens when you are no longer called that?  What happens when you are just MOM?

Who can tell me what to do when my 8, almost 9, year old wants to start doing her own hair and sometimes it's not that great but I am pretty worthless at doing hair and don't really know how to make it better?  What happens when I try to help and it gets WORSE?  And we are both near tears, or actually crying, and frustrated and it's time to go to school and I yell out the door to her, "It's your smile and kindness that makes you pretty!" even though we both know a good hair day DOES make a difference in our attitude.

And while we are on the subject of HER... why didn't ANYONE tell me that while the actual period doesn't start until she is older,  they cycle of hormones/emotional breakdowns started at about age 5.  FIVE!  I had to sit her down and explain it to her just last week when it dawned on my that she might benefit from knowing that her feelings of complete worthlessness are hormonal and while they may feel real, they aren't real, but it's hard to combat it when they feel so real.  She's got a battle ahead of her. I know it because I have to fight it every single month but maybe we can get through it together if I don't kill her first because baby it is bad, bad, bad.

And am I the only person with one teen and one pre-teen boy sleeping in the same room?  Ew.  When they were babies I used to go in at night and stare at their peaceful sleeping faces and think hard about what I can do to help them reach their full potential.  Now I barely crack the door, hold my breath and peak inside to see if they are in their beds.  I know if I were to actually breathe in that room I would die of the stink, and no one would pick me up because in that room nothing gets picked up unless I demand it, and if I am dead, there is no one there to demand it.

Now we get to the baby of the family.  There is no one younger than her to remind my own self of what a 6 year old can do and so I let her get away with not doing what the other kids had to do at 6.  I mean, by then I was practically in their face about getting a job and holding their own.  Just kidding, but I know I had them all doing more for themselves than the little princess has to do.  I do not want to screw her up by making her do too much, and I don't want to screw her up by not making her do too little and so I find myself between a rock and a six year old.  And most of the time I end up gathering her up in my arms like a baby and snuggling with her.  It's hard to do that with a rock.

So enough with the MOMMY BLOGGERS...

I need a MOM blogger. 

Because there is a heckuva lot of unchartered territory here,

 at least for me. 

And PS:  I love ALL my kids like you wouldn't believe, stink and all.