It’s pretty clear fatherhood is taking me in a direction that I’m not fully comfortable with, especially as I have to deal with stuff that I have absolutely no clue about.
A few days ago my oldest daughter had her 9th birthday. So, she’s getting older, but she still loves to play with toys, watch Disney movies, a tickle fights and has a favourite teddy bear. To me she’ still the tiny girl that we brought home that many years ago.
This illusion was burst recently, when I realized that she is fact getting bigger … in many ways that I’m not prepared for. I’m sure that I can learn to deal with some of these;
- Growing interest in boys
- Mood swings
- Obsessive shopping
- Less interested in toys
- Liking Justin Bieber and 1D (the horror has become real)
But, I cannot get my head around that she’s slowly becoming a woman, and that her body as a result is changing. HELP! I have to leave this to my missus and her motherly instincts.
Anyway, I had suggested a few cool presents for her birthday, none of which made it to the final list and subsequent materialised into a present. Not that I feel disappointed with having my ideas excluded, as the main thing is that she was happy for what she got – which she was.
Suddenly my wife uttered some words quietly, which at first sounded like “i’m going … to … meassure … training bra”. The reason for the missing words were entirely because of the running tap in the kitchen and the sizzling meat on the pan.
I replied calmly “dear, you have given birth to three wonderful kids, breastfed them all, have a nice chest that would shame any Hooters employees, so I think you should get a bra for pros. Or perhaps visit Victoria Secrets“.
The stare and follow up smack I received on my arm would have brought out tears in most wrestlers, and I burst into a subdued scream and a tear formed at the corner of my eye. I obviously said something wrong, and my wife kindly repeated the line “I’m going to the mall with our daughter to get her measured for a training bra“.
WTF! She’s only 9 years old. She couldn’t possible be ready for this yet or even at this stage in her development. But, I was wrong … again … and my wife took our excited daughter to the mall.
Ever since that evening things have been different in our little house. Whenever my daughter is in her room getting dressed, and I walk past her room, a scream worthy of any horror movie emanates from her room and she slams the door shot while shouting “don’t get in here, I’m putting on clothes”.
Is this just the beginning? What else will change? What will be next?
The most amusing thing occured the other morning, after she had taken a shower. She had screamed and slammed the door as usual when I walked by, only to open it slowly a few minutes later.
She emerged from her room with her bra on, but nothing else! As I kindly pointed this out to her, she legged into her room again to put on the rest of her protective body amor.
In response to her behavioural changes, I too have decided to change. Every time she opens the door to our bed room, the bath room or any other room, I gently ask her to close the door. Especially when I sit on the can with the iPad watching “Walking Dead“.
It’s not easy seeing your little baby grow up and impossible to accept that some things changes that I don’t know how to handle. I do not feel comfortable with the idea that I have to talk to her about feminine issues and perhaps even go shopping with her for some of these either.