We had to pick my step-kids up from their mothers place yesterday. Actually…their grandmothers place…their mother lives in the basement there. Anyway…
Watching my step-daughter walk out to our car, my husband remarks about how grown up she is getting. How truly amazing the difference is between last year and now. She smiles at us, seemingly knowing that we are talking about her. Turns around. Saunters off, back into the house to get her stuff.
What is taking so long…I ask my husband. We need to hurry. We are supposed to meet my parents for lunch for Fathers Day.
My husband gets out of the car and goes into the house. Almost immediately…he comes running out.
I HAVE to go in there. My step-daughter NEEDS me!
Great. But, isn’t her mom in there. I’m trying to listen to a really cool version of “Let My Love Open the Door” by the Who.
Yeah, her mom is in there. But…she needs ME. NOW!
So…I run into my husbands ex-in-laws house. By the way…being the consummate snob that I am…I would have turned my nose up at the whole family, way back when. But, I digress…
I run into the house and am directed into a closet…er…bathroom. My step-daughter is standing there with her underwear around her ankles and her mother is just standing there.
“I got my period.” She says.
“Wha…” I start to cry.
I look at her biological mother. Who is still just standing there. Like a MORON. Not doing anything.
So…I say to the mother…”Um…do you have any pads?”
I think I might of awakened her. She walks over to a little linen closet and pulls out some maxi-pads. And…hands them to ME. The step-mother.
I kick the Mother MORON out of the bathroom and slam the door. And, I instruct my young daughter…who has just now become a woman…how to put the maxi pad into her underwear.
While her mother is on the other side of the bathroom door. NOT. DOING. ANYTHING. Except standing there. Waiting.
And, I’m still crying. Because…my little girl. The one who we just noticed has grown up so much in the last year…can now, officially, have babies.
And that is sickening!!
And amazing.
And so depressing.
And incredible.
And…she’s better NOT. Not for, at least, 20 more years!
After we were all done in the bathroom, we open the door to find her biological mother. Still standing there. Seriously!
She says to her daughter…”Well, there isn’t anything you can do about it. So embrace it. Make womanly choices now…because you’re a woman.”
OK…what the FUCK does that mean? She is telling a 12 year old to make womanly choices. Is she serious? She is still a kid. Who happens to have gotten her period. There is nothing womanly about her.
I kind of push her out of the way…it’s a tiny little hall…and I take my kids hand. And…she says goodbye to her mom.
And we leave.
Her mother is still standing there.
I wonder if she ever moved..
But…
MY little girl. She got her period. And I cried. And I showed her how to use a pad.
I can’t believe it!
I wasn’t prepared for this. It happened so fast. Her growing up.
And that is what I’M embracing. Enjoying my children. And watching them grow up.
It’s truly. A. Miracle.
