Kids Grow Up

This week I happened upon The Glow .

The Glow is a glimpse into the world of inspiring and fashionable moms.
Here you’ll find their styling ideas, go-to gear, multitasking secrets, and enviable decor.

Lately I've been getting into design blogs, especially kid-themed design, or design that incorporates real-live children's needs into the plans. 

I also read What I Want You to Know: Why I Resent Mothers on Rage Against the Minivan. The woman writing in that piece talks about how mothers get special treatment and are part of a mommy-club that gains them "support and respect."

What do these two things have in common? 

Well, it is true that there is no shortage of lovely, glossy, mommy blogs showing gorgeous crafts and birthday parties, magazine spread worthy nurseries, and adorable toddler fashion. There is no shortage of adorableness.

But do you know what I don't see so much of? Kids.

Kids who have traded in chubby legs and first teeth grins for legs that grow so fast pants never fit, and gap-toothed smiles from first teeth lost. 

As a mother raising a black son, in America I heard so many parents talk about how their adorable black baby grew into a "threatening" black teenager, and the whiplash of society changing their stance in relation to their child. 

Two of my kids are clearly out of the cute stage. Behavior that would be fine in younger children becomes suddenly grating and unacceptable! when put on display by a (almost) 5 and 6 year old. They won't wear the great outfits I put together for them. They won't respect my keen eye for design in setting up their rooms. They insist on decorating with fistfuls of grass shoved into old plastic cups. 

My kids are definitely good looking. It's not that they are awkward or unattractive or that they have behavior problems. They're just turning into "big" kids. 

When I looked through The Glow I found feature after feature of yummy mummies with adorable babies in designer clothing, living in expensive NY apartments. I don't really see how that is relevant to my life.  I had some good laughs over some of the sage advice offered by mothers of six month old babies. Sure their experience is totally valid, yet their advice would be helpful to a person with a baby under...six months, but how does it help me?

Anyway, I just realized that for as many blogs as I read, and as much "support and respect" as there is for mothers, I need to find some more sites that feature school-age kids being their age. You know, sites with 500 songs about poop, recipes for back-yard concoctions of mud, snails, and bird poop, how-do guides for clashing styles, prints, AND colors in one amazing outfit, and sure-fire techniques for getting dog poop off of shoes. That sort of thing.

PS-Tips for how to referee fisticuffs between siblings while comforting a toddler who has just fallen down the stairs and an infant who is hysterically hungry would also be helpful. 

Comments

[Kelly]

So true. When kids are 5 and 6 they have their own opinions as to how things should be, and they like to voice their opinions.

If you figure out your dog poop off of shoes question, please share, I haven't yet figured that one out.