Hold On a Minute, I'm Not Ready for This

This week I went to two musical events -- Delco Idol Jr. and Abby's "Band Camp" summer concert. Naturally, kids performing can always be counted on to provide excellent blogging material, however, something else is heavy on my mind and in order to exorcise the demons, I'm going to share it with you. Here it is:

Without warning, my children, and their friends, have moved past the "kid" stage and right to the "young people" stage.

This is not so much a chronological phenomenon as a physical, mental, and emotional one. For instance, while Abby is only 10 compared to Ian's 13 years, she's showing as many signs of having moved up to this stage as he is. In case you don't personally have children who have morphed from kids into young people, here are some of the signs:

• They stop caring about the look of their bedroom (if they ever did) and start caring about the look of their clothing 
• They no longer say "ewww" when someone mentions the opposite sex
• Sleeping with you after a nightmare or during a thunderstorm is no longer an option (for them, not you)
• Spending time with friends is nearly always preferable to spending time with mom and dad, even when they're not embarrassed, irritated, or pissed off at you

The number one sign your child has moved up a level in the climb toward adulthood is when, during a brief moment, time stands still and you suddenly see that child as an "outsider" might see them. I don't know about you, but it has me freaked out. 

Tonight was moment #3 for me. Moment #1 happened back in April and it wasn't even my child. You may recall that we vacationed over spring break in the Outer Banks with three other families. Early on in that vacation I found myself coming back from the beach in view of our house and noticed someone new in the hot tub. I thought to myself, "Hmmm, who's the young guy hanging out in the hot tub?" It wasn't until I came closer that I realized 1) the "young guy" was Ian's best friend, 13-year-old Noah and 2) I clearly needed glasses.

Moment #2 occurred just a couple weeks ago while at a soccer game with Abby, friends, and friends' parents and siblings. The 13-year-old brother of one of Abby's friends walked up to my baby girl her and said "How ya doing?" Thankfully She looked at him as if he had lost his mind, said nothing in response, and the moment passed. But meanwhile, mom here had one of those out of body experiences. I suddenly saw Abby as a 13-year-old boy might see Abby. And I didn't like it one bit realized she's darn cute and no longer such a little girl.

And last night I saw a touch of the boy/girl dynamics at play when Abby and friend were engaging in conversation with Ian and friend and there was an element of bashfulness/coyness/flirting that I'd never seen before and hope to not see again for another eight to ten years.

As if I don't already have enough gray hairs...