Tweens R Kids 2

It's hard to comprehend. At 5'4.5" and 110 lbs, my just-turned-twelve-year-old daughter is already beginning to resemble a super model. She has a smartphone glued to her hand and speaks in text. (Except in my house, where it isn't allowed. She'll need a real job some day, I'm sure.) She's been dancing for nine years so she has the kind of body people like me would die for but cannot obtain no matter how little we eat or how much we work out. Older teens and grown men fall all over themselves when she walks by. (Imagine Barbie with thicker honey-colored hair and a realistic hip-waist-bust ratio and you have my tween.) She eats an adult meal and half of my meal when we go out. She even stopped wearing her superman glasses in public and asked to get contacts.

    And last night she walked outside to take out the trash and howled at the full moon.

Tween wolf howl this past winter

    The taller and more mature she gets, it becomes easy to mistake her for an older teen. I mean, she looks like she's in high school (except in this picture, taken six months and 4 inches ago). But moments like last night remind me she really is still somewhat a kid. She may have some interest in PG-13 movies (pre-screened, of course) and blush a bit when she sees a cute boy her age, but she still watches Barbie movies and pretends to be a wolf sometimes.
   Parenting a tween is tough. This is that moment we lead them over the bridge from childhood to "I hate you, you're ruining my life!" (Teen years.) Some see the other side of that bridge and can't wait to get over it. She has a slightly older friend, about nine months, who prefers to spend a sleepover applying make-up to my moon-howling baby girl and taming that hot, beautiful mess of hair on her head until she resembles Giselle Bundchen. I find that highly disturbing, as apparently every male human in Kroger did, too. She likes the attention, loves to feel pretty, but would rather spend her free time playing with her Disney Infinity characters on the Xbox.
    As her mom, the best thing I can do right now is let her be a kid. She'll give those things up when she's ready as long as I don't pressure her, even if her friends do. During this time, I am carefully gauging where she is on more adult topics. Thankfully, the worst one (adult relations) is still of no interest to her given she buries her head every time Bella and Edward, or even Cinderella and Prince Charming kiss. We fast forward through the PG-13 scenes because "they're too gross."
    As most of the old men who hit on me say, age is just a number. It never works, but it is true when it comes to kids. Sure, there are certain milestones you need to watch to make sure your child is developing properly physically, mentally, and emotionally, but no milestone is set in stone. While some kids put away toys and animated entertainment as early as ten, others will still enjoy those things well into their junior high lives. This happens more often with only children who don't have the pressure of an older sibling driving them to mature too quickly. (Parents, don't be that sibling.)
    For now, after the make-up and fancy dress up day at her BFF's, I'm letting out a long sigh of relief that my baby girl still howls at the moon.