"Tween" Years Starts At 6?!

As we approach the end of our kindergarten year I feel a bit of sadness. My babies are moving onto the 1st grade and are not babies any longer, they now have some "seniority" under their belts...and there is also this big lump of fear that resides right in my heart. I try and give my kids space to feel their way around and learn and meet different kids and experience different things. I want them to without being too obvious to be friends and play with different kids rather than the same ones over and over again and being apart of a clique. Our school is notorious for being like that...as I'm sure many are, but we are so very very good at it...especially the parents. I should know, I'm a product of this same exact school system.

So I try and schedule playdates with kids that Tyler would not be playing Tball with or soccer with and I do try and request that he is not in the same class with kids that he is on the same sports team with...especially if I know they get too carried away together. I know some may argue that I am preventing a close relationship, but I disagree. Being on a sports team together creates a really strong bond that does not need being in the same classes to nurture.

I hear these young boys ALREADY at the age of 6 talking about girls. Telling each other so and so is "hot." How do they know what hot means? and they FLIRT! I see the little girls looking at these boys and the boys doing the same! Granted not every little kindergartener is maturing at that rate, but there are a good handful that are and once the others start drinking that "Kool-aid" forget it! I chat with some of the other moms in Tyler's class and they tell me that their daughters go home telling them that they are going to marry so and so...and we think how cute is that?! and it's funny! Well some of us think it is...I do. Some of us think it's not so funny...oh well. But there are moments when I do see that age 6 innocence of a little boy shine through.

Today for example was a good example. "Beyblades" are the hottest toys on the market. They are glorified tops that comes with a rip cord and a release mechanism that the top is attached to. Of course there are a dozen different kinds and the kids collect them all. Toys are not allowed in the classroom, but all the kids bring them to school and play before school or after school. Tyler brings them and promises to put them in his backpack. Today, I kissed him good bye at the front door like always and he went on his way, what he didn't know was that I waited and went down to his classroom to talk to his teacher and when I did....BUSTED! He had his Beyblades out showing a friend. Although I was angry at him for disobeying, I was relieved secretly that it's not all about girls.

As I was walking down the hall to leave the school I hear a whole bunch of giggling and I look in to see in the girl's bathroom, Madison and her little girlfriends in front of the mirror playing with their hair and giggling and chit chatting about something. She has recently changed so much! She has taken this huge interest in wearing skirts and dresses and putting ribbons in her hair and wearing headbands. She wants pocketbooks and lipgloss and just everything girly. oy vay! It's very cute and what all her friends are doing and I will let her, but to a certain extent, I still make her dress appropriately for PE class on the days she has PE where as her friends are still decked out in dresses. On the flipside, they may be rubbing off some good on her as well, her reading skills has improved 110% and it's amazing!

The S bomb has also been dropped. SEX. Tyler had said something about sex and Madi started to giggle and then just flat out started to belly laugh. When he did this the first time, Kevin was playing xbox and he almost dropped the controller and I almost dropped my iphone. I did manage to keep my cool and asked him what he thought that meant. He said kissing on the lips. I did leave it at that...I just did not and could not deal with correcting him nor did I think he needed to be corrected at this point in his life. He definitely was not going to be performing this anytime soon!

So all you preschool parents out there...prepare for kindergarten! it's like Space Mountain!!!

Mommy PhD

As a new mother you don't know what to expect and so you hang by every word of the pediatrician. After the first year you get the hang of it and you have the training wheels off and you can sense things now. By the 2nd and 3rd years you are a "resident" and by 4th year and beyond, you are the real mccoy. Also, you have the Mommy gut feeling which some pediatricians don't have because they don't have children! Now some don't believe in that, but I do...totally! It's a 7th sense.

I love how medicine changes. I always thought having a 102 fever is a fever and that warrants Tylenol or SOMETHING, but nope these days it's really a fever until it's 104 or higher! Really?! I need to wait until my child is on the edge of brain damage before I give them something? So I really don't believe in that. If my kids have a fever, even if it's 101, I'll give them Tylenol. As a working mom, I don't have time to wait for them to work itself out.

Then this whole thing with ear infections. Now the doctors don't like to treat them right away. Are they serious?!? "Come back in a few days if they don't feel better and then we'll give you antibiotics" Again, who has time for this?! Good lord, and why make the child suffer through the pain when they don't have to?!?! I just don't get it.

So this past weekend we did a family field trip to BJs and as we were checking out the kids were horsing around against my advice. I looked over and Madison had run straight into a cement pole and was crying. Great. She had a scratch on her head, but no bumps and no blood. So I didn't make anything of it. On the drive home, she fell asleep in the car, typical, so again, didn't think anything of it. When we got home I made them lunch, she didn't want to eat, said her head hurt and wanted to go back to sleep. THEN I had this bad feeling that I just might be taking a trip to the ER. So without putting ideas in her head I asked her why she wanted to nap and if she was hungry, she said she was tired and was being a little whiny. Again, sort of typical of her to be whiny and milking her injury. In the middle of her sleep she turned over and said that she felt like throwing up but she wasn't going to. That's when I knew I better make a call to her PCP, so I did. The oncall nurse called me back and I described the events to her. She advised me to wake her up and take her to the ER. When we woke her up she in fact did throw up and so I took her in. When the ER pediatrician came to see her Madison was having a fit because she did not want to put on the little "johnny" and was backed into a corner crying. The dr asked "is this behavior a result from the injury?" and I had to laugh and answer "NO, she's normally this difficult." So we did compromise with her and did not make her change. I did learn at that point that with head injuries "the first one is free." I was informed that normally with these types of injuries, 4-5 hours after the accident if symptoms of headaches and vomiting does not increase to 2 or 3 times it is ok!

I can appreciate new science and medicine however there are some old school ways that I still buy into. Unless it is to improve and it has worked in the past, why change it? So I think I will use MY mommy PhD and do what works for my kids in treating fevers and injuries and insist on antibiotics for things such as ear infections when we know as a mom that there IS one there and it's NOT going away magically. And then if we come across things that are more involved than what my mommy PhD covers I'll listen to our pediatrician whole heartedly!