It's beauty time, folks. My little girl is growing up. And I'm not ready. She's a mere 7 but I've never had a seven year old and sometimes I don't know what to do. It is seven to begin not doing what you're told and it is seven to start being sassy, but when baby comes home from a sleepover and you're not sure what she ate that morning and she begins having a meltdown you start to wonder. So you begin, just as if she was a week old. Hmmm, having a difficult time communicating her needs. Let's try:
1. Talking to her because she's actually 7 years and not weeks old.
2. Talk more firmly because simple talking gets nowhere.
3. Feed her because you're uncertain what she ate this morning and even though you trust she did, she's in no condition to communicate.
4. Wonder what I didn't do that led me to this exact moment in time where at seven she's having a meltdown and even though she can't see it right now I feel only defeated.
5. Give her orange juice because it always makes my friend Alex shiny happy.
6. Let her be and set out to do what I was supposed to do in the first place.
7. Return to find her doing fine and pretend it never happened, the tactic being not to make her feel like a bad child.
8. Forget about the day's chores and remember that she's more important and obviously needing ME right now and ask if she would like to go get a haircut and her nails done. Um, yeah!
9. Whisk away the happiest child one could hope to see.
10. Wonder if I'm a fool.
11. Stop caring because she's a great girl and needs to feel good about herself and sometimes a haircut and nails kind of girly date with Mom is just the thing to do it. We were getting ready for Auntie's birthday dinner, which was another reason to pay special attention to our hair and nails and teaching my daughter that self care is a good and fun thing shouldn't make me feel so guilty, but why does it? It's an odd feeling really. My mother cut my hair until I left home at 13. And I continued to cut it until I was about 23. So I guess the guilt comes from getting outside of the DIY spirit of just simply doing it at home. Sometimes a girl just needs a mini vacation and often that can be accomplished in the time it takes to get a mani pedi.
