Keeping It Real

The other night, I was watching a movie with my older daughter. I hadn’t watched this movie before and so was as surprise as she was when a couple of teenagers began…doing things that twelve years olds do not need to watch.

There was no graphic nudity but there was, um, movement and such.

Ahem, yes. I’m going to wait a while on that Mother of the Year trophy after all, aren’t I?

So I covered her eyes and then whispered to her, “You don’t need to watch this. They’re…having the sex.”

She laughed and covered my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see ‘the sex’ either. She’s a very thoughtful child. I don’t know where she gets it.

After the bad teens were skewered by a stalactite that fell during an earth quake, I turned to A and said, “And that’s what happens when teenagers make bad choices. They die.”

I do this every so often in hopes of making awkward topics a little less awkward. I want her to know that nothing is taboo when it comes to talking to me.

Later she said, “I can’t wait to tell my friends about you covering my eyes during ‘the sex.’”

I told her, “Make sure you whisper the words ‘the sex’ because it makes the story that much funnier.”

Then I adopted an exaggerated ‘teen’ voice and said, “You guys, my mom is so weird! We were watching a movie and she covered my eyes, telling me not to watch ‘the sex.’ Then the teenager were killed during the sex and she told me that’s what happens when teens make bad choices.”

She laughed so hard I was afraid she was going to wake Olivia or Tom.

I like being able to make Alyssa laugh. I like that she’s comfortable sitting next to me and watching movies, even when awkward moments happen and we glimpse images of *whisper* the sex, *end whisper*, it’s okay. She’s growing up and I’m lucky that she’s still sitting beside me, laughing at my lame jokes and silly voices.

I’ll start to worry when she’s avoiding me and ignoring me and no longer talking or listening to me at all.

For the record, she told me I could tell this story.