Mothers and Daughters

This past week on our 2 part family vacation, we got to spend lots of time with our extended families and it was awesome!

But...I also got to see daughters of all ages interacting with their moms and I gotta be honest, I'm a little excited and definitely scared!

Looking forward to the 4-10 year old stage when she'll be a little more independent.  I got to watch cousins who could let their kids go in the pools and watch from the sidelines.  Or let them go run off with other kids and do an arts and crafts project.  Or play some flag football with some of the older kids and adults.  The cool thing was that kids that age were able to be on their own to some extent and not need an adult on top of them at all times.  That sounds very cool to me right now especially since we're at the toddler stage, where I feel like Jenna really needs us to be right.next.to.her most (or at least much) of the time. 

No swimming alone for this little girl!

Then there's the 11+ age group - I gotta be honest, this seriously scares me.  And I know my mother is probably reading this laughing to herself because I was such a "gem" to her during these years.  The rolling of the eyes? Not cool The fresh back talk? Definitely not looking forward to it.  The doing whatever she wants without caring about what I think? Oh god, I'm not sure how I'm going to get through it.  The being really beautiful and making sure boys don't take advantage of her? Seriously, scared!

But I also got to see adult women and their moms (me included) and at least in the families I was with - the relationships are pretty damn special.  As my adult cousin said so bluntly to her mother as we were making fun of her crooked sunglasses, "C'mon who's going to tweeze your chin hair when you can't see it anymore?" We may all make fun of rip apart our moms, but we do love them to pieces and I'm looking forward to having that relationship with my daughter.

And I guess that's the return on the daughter investment...you'll always have someone to tweeze your chin hair! It'll be worth every second!