Hormones. Oh my goodness! Sometimes there are so many that I feel positively pressed up against the nearest wall to accommodate their volume!
Part of our school this year is sex education, so we are talking about puberty and hormones and feelings and changing bodies ad nauseam. I always felt like I got too little or not enough help through my own transition into adulthood, so it is interesting being on the other side of the proverbial table.
Our focus in our health lessons for my son have been puberty—signs, what is normal, what to expect. It is very detailed and technical. Our focus for my girl is much more touchy feely. We have a diary/journal type book where she answers questions about her favorite color and white type of flower is most her. I give each of my kids special mommy -and-me time for this particular subject, so I go from stickers and poufs to scrotum skin thickness and gauging puberty stage based on pubic hair.
Sometimes I feel like I need to drink some Alice in Wonderland potion to help me with the transition.
My son is 11 and showing sure signs of maturity. He is growing like a weed and his voice is dropping. I love how matter-of-fact he is about everything. I don’t know many people as confident as he is. The books we are reading repeat time and again assurances that varied start times and speeds of maturity are ‘perfectly normal.’ We laugh about it, but I also strive to remind him that this can be a trying time for some, so those repeated reassurances can be a real blessing.
Enter my daughter. Newly nine years old, she might be on the brink of some big changes. Today during spelling she had to stop for a cry. She didn’t know why and didn’t want to cry but just had to. This evening she had her brother come tell me that she thinks he is the favorite. Oh, my! The drama! We had another cry—mixed in with a bit of snarkiness directed my way.
After the third barely controlled testy retort delivered between sniffles I gasped. “I think I know what is wrong with you.” Frankly, I am not sure there is room in this house for two hormonal women. I mean, it isn’t like with guys, where once puberty is done, everything normals out. No. I am possibly more hormonal now than I was when I was 18. And it could get a whole lot worse before it gets better.
We may be in for a bumpy ride!
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