Florida Chick is an Embarrassment

It's official, my daughter has finally crossed the line from "girl" to "tween." I should have realized that the obsession with Hannah Montana and the innocent crush on The Jonas Brothers were first signs of this twisted journey into pre-adolescence, but no, I just chalked it up to the marketing genius of Disney and continued tacking posters onto the walls, oblivious to what I'm sure any notable psychiatrist would have picked up as the daughter stage known as "mom, I'm way too cool for you."

Which brings me to my current dilemma...and the reason I have finally realized that my daughter is moving into tween-hood. It's not her age, not the Hannah/Jonas obsession, not even the fact that she is now better at math than I am...It's the fact that two days ago she said, "oh my gosh mom, stop dancing, you are embarrassing me!" Not only that, but she said it while I was dancing in the living room...with the curtains closed.

Now I understand the dilemma of the daughter whose mom is a "professional dancer" (read my blog about Rock of Love if you have any questions on the definition of this occupation) and is saying "oh my gosh mom, stop dancing, you are embarrassing me because men are putting dollars in your thong." But really, in the living room? curtains closed? getting down to Toby Mac? It's too much. To top it off, I thought I was a cool mom...I mean, not a cool mom like in Mean Girls (you know, you know what I'm talking about) but a cool mom none the less. I wear low-rise bootcut jeans (seriously, skinny jeans...not happening) with my Hannah Montana t-shirt, and wear cool shoes and shiny lipgloss, and big sunglasses. I read BOP magazine with her and pick out who was a fashion hot or not at the Nick Kids awards, and most importantly, my students at school think I'm cool...why wouldn't she? Even worse, it was my dancing that embarrassed her... I have flashbacks of Elaine on Seinfeld doing the thumb-out half-kick dance that made Jerry and George cringe and wonder when I went from center-of-the-dancefloor-girl to girl-who-reminds-daughter-of-a-Seinfeld-episode. Sigh...

I suppose there is a reason that God gave tweens and moms multiple years to figure this whole thing out, in the midst of the eye-rolling embarrassment, he gives us moments like last night when Kaitlyn looked up and me and said, don't forget to check on me before you go to bed, or moments like this morning when she handed me the brush to make the perfect ponytail...or moments like right now as she's playing "school" with her best friend and says in her best teacher voice "I'm Mrs. VanHekken..." and then looks at me... and smiles.

Lots of Love from the Florida Chick