My foster granddaughter will be 11 soon and she's showing many signs of teendom: the hard rock station she likes to listen to now, the shows she wishes she could attend with her friend, the emphasis on hair and clothes, and the shift from family to peers. I asked her how she liked being up in the mountains after Christmas and she admitted she would rather have been home and been with friends. I told her I remembered feeling that way and maybe soon she'd be able to stay behind with a friend's family some of the time. Also, her family could bring a friend along. That's what I did when my youngest by many years reached that age. We took a friend on the trip with us. We took one friend to Hawaii and another to Italy. We also took a vacation to Washington, D.C. with the family of her friend.
So things are changing and I'm glad she trusts me to confide in. My task is to be non-judgmental and empathize. Secretly, I empathize as well with her parents, who are in for some turbulence in the coming years.
No comments:
Post a Comment