My kid turned 2 a little bit ago. How did that happen? She’s already two-years-old! I’m so cliched now, time really does fly by! According to her school she’s no longer a toddler… and according to those annoying BabyCenter emails I still regularly get about her development stages, she’s no longer a toddler… she’s a “preschooler”.

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She’s a lot of fun, she is saying the greatest things. She’s learning Spanish at school… so that means I need to learn some Spanish so I’m not stumped when she talks to me. So far I’ve been good, she’s said “Hola” and “Adios” to me and I know what those mean. She got a slide and a babydoll for her birthday. She will throw the baby down the slide and then say, “Is okay baby?” My stomach growled the other day and she said, “Mommy toot.” When we turn on the Nutribullet or the vacuum, she yells “Fire hole!” (AKA fire in the hole!)

She’s also a lot of work. It’s hard to balance my own desires for hobbies/entertainment along with my responsibilities as a fulltime employee and taking care of her needs as her mother. When she has a toddler meltdown it is mentally and emotionally draining. I don’t want to see my child sad or angry. But I also know that it’s my (shitty) responsibility as a parent to not give in to her every whim so she doesn’t grow up to be a shitty adult. (And also to potty train her so she doesn’t grow up to be a “shitty” adult… and potty training is a “shitty” process in many ways!)

But it’s also scary to think about the future. I’m not sure how I would parent a kid in this current day if they were a pre-teen/teen and the world is bound to be drastically different by the time I’ll actually be parenting a kid in that age range. I know I will want to give her advice, because some aspects of those horrible feelings of pre-teen/teen life are still very prominent in my mind. Yet I know that I thought my mom couldn’t possibly relate to what I was going through because she did it so long ago… and she had me 10-years earlier in her life than I had A. I’m even further removed! But the truth is, even though both she and I could remember what we did/felt at certain ages, we don’t know how to be that age at any given time other than when we were that age.

I saw an article the other day:  Why Today’s Parents Have No Business Giving Their Kids Advice – the headline is clickbait and overly dramatic… parents do have business giving their kids advice. But it’s also true in a way. The most we can do is give guidance because we’re not living in that daily situation at that age. And if you start thinking too much on that it feels too metta. I did, however, like the reminder that I need to work on instilling good manners and values in her and hope that she’ll be able to apply those in her life.

But it’s still terrifying to think this adorable little girl (who used to be my adorable little baby) will someday be an amazing child/teen/adult.