Where Did My Baby Go?

Eyasu Etsub on Unsplash

My strong-willed child is growing up.

It’s happening right before my eyes.

My kid is growing taller losing her baby fat, and her interests are changing.

Her personality is amazing, her intelligence leaves me in awe and her humor cracks me up. I joke that I can’t wait until she’s self-sufficient, but at eight-years-old, she made herself breakfast one morning and I felt some kind of way. It was cereal and yogurt, but it still was another of those moments that feels like a break in the parental link. Like when she weaned herself from breastfeeding or left on the school bus for the first time as a kindergartener.

The biggest change I’ve noticed is that more times than not, she responds maturely in situations that just six months ago, she would have pitched a fit about.

Don’t get me wrong: I am so glad when my requests are met with a ‘yes, mommy’ instead of grumbling, stomping, or whining. In fact, I had become so accustomed to struggle of it all that I was thrown for a loop the first time she simply said ‘okay’.

I’m sorry, what?

That was it?

No dramatics, no struggle, just ‘okay’ when I tell her that electronics time is over or to clean up her room?

I will cherish these moments as I can only imagine what the teenage years will bring.

Admittedly, I love to see these little precursors of her growing up.

Just a little teary that my baby’s not a baby anymore.

Any other mamas out there in the same place I am?