My three kids are twelve (almost thirteen), ten (almost eleven) and seven (almost eight).
I wanted to have kids that were close in age, mainly because I had this notion, from my own experience, that siblings with big age gaps wouldn’t be close, wouldn’t be friends.
I grew up feeling closer to my cousins who are 2 and 4 years younger than me, than I ever did with my own sister, who is 5 years older.
And so our children were planned and I wanted them close in age. The first 2 are two years apart, the third one didn’t work out that way because of a miscarriage along the way, so our little one is 3 years younger than the middle one.
And yet, they’re not that close. Maybe it’s because the eldest already thinks she’s 16… I’m not sure. But there is no team spirit there between her and the other two. Fortunately, there is a bond between the youngest.
It’s Mother’s Day today in the UK. My son and my youngest daughter worked together to bring me breakfast in bed. They both had the same idea so they joined forces.
My eldest didn’t get involved, all she wanted was to wake up early to go play online games with her friends (never uses an alarm on school days, but today she did!)
And yet, she made a fuss and even tried to sabotage the others when she realised she wasn’t “invited” to join.
I feel like a failure most of the time as a Mom, but I guess that’s normal and there’s lots of Moms on the same boat with me. Teenage years are possibly the worst, and I have an incessant amount of verbal abuse… which is hard to swallow, especially on a day like this. I wish I could be with my own Mom, and tell her how much I appreciate the patience she had with me… I was probably as bad to her as I am experiencing now.
I don’t know if the fact that 2 thirds of my kids are still kind and loving to me is only because they haven’t hit the teenage years yet, or if I’ve genuinely done a better job there.
Either way, I have to think I’ve done something right, because at least I received some love and appreciation from them today.
Happy Mother’s Day. Keep going, you’re doing a great job! 💛