Dear Kukka: Welcoming Stroppy Sevens

You are approaching 7. My friends with older children “warned” me about kids turning 7. It sounded like the “Terrible Twos”. And FYI you were NOT terrible when you were two. You were adorable! Now you are 4 months shy of 7. And I’m buckling up now for...a super exciting ride! :))

School drama: checked. 

Resistant to bluffs: checked. 

Teasing and being teased: checked. 

Having problems with friends: checked. 

Debating with me about silly stuff: checked.

Arguing with me with about important matters: checked.

I’m all about standing up for your opinion, babe. But widening your eyes angrily at me while you’re at it? Not nice. But hilarious! I almost burst into laughter when it happened but as a mother I just had to keep my cool. And your arguments? Some of them I accepted, but some which were out of the context and didn’t make any sense at all? They were just too cute not to be made fun of :)) 

But okay, let me be serious now. Honestly you are getting tougher for me to handle. And you are one of the few sweetest, well-behaved kids I know! I don’t know what’s going on inside your mind right now but I imagine it’s overwhelming. It’s hard to be a kid. I know. Now let me tell you this. 

It’s hard to be a mother too. Especially to an intelligent, witty, super curious and strong-willed girl like you. I’m pretty sure you will outsmart me in no time. You’ve been correcting your Nini and your dad’s english since 2 years ago. You've started to challenge my knowledge about our religion since 4yo. I can only imagine what you will criticize about in the next couple of months. My hair? My writings?? My rules?????????? You used to just accept my motherly lectures. Now you’re questioning and refusing some of them. Which later leads to me giving you the I-AM-YOUR-MOTHER look and the magic words: BECAUSE I SAID SO. Which you don’t always accept and then comes the never-ending YES! <--> NO! fight. It’s exhausting and frustrating for me. Seriously. 

Soon you will have even less fear of the list of consequences I’ve made for you if you break our agreement. Like yesterday, when you were grounded and had to sleep by yourself. You accepted it with 1 condition: I had to open the door a little bit. I agreed. I didn’t hear a peep and half an hour later you were asleep. Just like that. No drama. What happened to “You always have to sleep with me, Bubu. I will be very sad if you don’t.”??? I wonder if you've learned your lesson there since you took the consequence pretty lightly :))

I’m having mixed feelings here, kid. I’m excited and I’m looking forward to see you grow. I can’t wait to be able to share, do and talk about grown up stuff with you. But I’m also scared and very sad because it means that you will outgrow the baby inside you. The baby who I've prayed and waited for and love and adore sooooooo much... I’m so not ready for this. Not yet. Then again... I wonder if I will ever be...