Growing up

“I’m five Papa, not four” Rosa, our youngest daughter corrected me as I was chatting to a friend about her last weekend. And I was stunned, momentarily. Of course I knew she was five. How could I not for we held a birthday party for her only recently. But obviously it hadn’t registered. Well not completely. And what was said next, I have little recollection, for I was still trying to comprehend the fact that Rosa, our youngest, our baby, she who needs help with everything, she who cries at the slightest thing. Yes, she who gets away with everything and she who can do no wrong is FIVE YEARS OLD.  

It took me several days for it to sink in. And I realise that because I had failed to notice that she was growing up and was no longer this little thing that needed to be wrapped in cotton wool, that we had thoroughly spoiled her.  Which probably accounts for the way she behaves. So this past week a few things have changed. No longer do we forgive her rude and inappropriate language. No longer do we dress her. And nor does she get first choice when it comes to choosing which song we should listen to in the car. And she will take her turn, along with everyone else.

So, as you can imagine, things are different now. And I am astonished at how well they have been received. Yes, we still have the power struggle and worse still, we now have the answering back. But what a blessing these things are. And instead of the “Help me Papa”, we have “I can do it myself Papa” And if I reach to help, I am batted away with a “I told you that I can do it myself Papa”. And she has become very much her own person.

 And then I shudder when I think back to people I have interviewed in the distant past. Those spotty twenty-something year-olds with awkward hair and equally office-inappropriate dress who we talked to as if we were their parents, must have grown up too. And so gone are the spots, gone too is the awkwardness and in their place we have young professionals looking and dressing and speaking very much the part. But the question is, have any of us noticed.