#33 "I think you're a..."
2 December 2025
Entry #33
2 December 2025
Status: Reading my children’s Whatsapps…
Mariam is taller than me, officially.
Daniel is going to college in four years.
If you’ve been following me since the birth of these two kids of mine, let that sink in.
We.
Old.
My eldest is now 12 and my youngest is now 4. So I have both parenting issues – how to handle a toddler all the way to how to handle a teenager. I thought toddlers were hard, but it turns out handling a teen is even harder. I spoke to an elderly man at pickleball and we shared parenting stories – and he said parenting a 30 or 40 year old is even harder. Therefore, the conclusion is parenting gets harder and harder. Great!
Both Daniel and Mariam might as well be considered teenagers now because I feel like I’m already facing the dreadful phase. Moodiness, puberty knocking on their doors, needing validation from friends, juggling good grades and sports, liking the opposite sex, needing their hair to be absolutely perfect before leaving the house, buying Dododots pimple patches… oh, the full package.
And I find myself having to say No a lot. My friends overseas believe in not saying No to their kids – it’s negative, they say. Screw that. “No” is my national anthem in this home.