This past week has been an eye-opening week for me. As a parent, I have entered the other side. The side where parenting prepares me for the other person my oldest child will be. My son, my first-born, and yes he will forever be my baby, is now a teen! My first experience as a parent with a 13 year was a terrible success. I cried for two reasons. The first, realizing I have a 13 year old placed me in a state of “how the hell did I get this old”. The second, I realized that I have a 13 year old and my baby grew up faster than he should have.

Turing 13 is just one of a long list of milestones both parents and children will experience. Milestones like baby taking his first steps, the first tooth falling out, going to school, attending their first dance, all steps that lead up to a child turning 13 and a parent realizing they need to lock the doors and take away the car keys!
With all kidding aside, my son turning 13 was difficult due to my own feelings, but a step as a parent we must go through. Difficult because I know, more now than ever, he will change. From his body to his attitude, the child once inside this body, will soon become a man. Being scared won’t stop the transformation.

All the changes that will happen to his body I am fully aware of. He knows what will be happening as well. From discussing it with him, his dad talking to him, to the little bit he has learned from health education in class and watching “the movie” shown in schools today, he is about as prepared as any other 13 year old out there.

So, with change comes the quest for knowledge. I felt it only appropriate that I add a list of some of the changes that I am suppose to see and he will feel over this next glorious year. The list is courtesy of Greatschools.net:

• uncertain, unhappy, and sensitive
• withdrawn; spends a lot of time alone; needs privacy
• convinced that everyone else is watching and judging
• very concerned with body image
• self-esteem at a low ebb
• not sociable with adults
• friendships tend to be group-focused; more squabbling than a year ago

Wow! This list seems like the majority of what I have been going through for a few years now. Well, the list continues at Greatschools.net to hammer out a few things that beginning with age 13 will continue to change until age 16. At age 16, most adolescents have made the leap to young adult and will soon make their passage to adult hood.

I am sure these next few years will bring me the same anxiety I have felt these past few months. With drivers education right around the corner, a car, dating, then graduation… becoming an adult can be just as scary as becoming a teen, for both parent and child!

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