The Care and Feeding of Your Pre-teen Daughter Or Day Nine

It's been a few days since I have updated my journey to being a better wife, mother, employee, person, friend. Today was a trip to good, or should I say better, mommy land. My 9 year old, Hannah, is growing up so fast! It's so hard to believe sometimes, and fastenating to watch. At the first of the school year we got her size 10/12 girls clothes. But she has shot up so fast. I have had to replace all her clothes in the past few weeks for a size 14/16. I got a call last night inviting her to a swimming party this weekend. So, I had her pull out last years swim suit. Needless to say, it didn't fit. So we went out last night to find her a new one. Luckily, the stores are starting to put them out. Unluckily, they don't have much of a selection yet. We went to Target. Disclaimer…. We don't DO bikini's. Target only had 2 different one pieces and all the rest were either bikini's or tankini's in the girls section. Well neither of the 2 one pieces had her size left. So we went to the women's section….. NOTHING….NADA…. Not one single suit would work. All inappropriate for a 9 year old. So…. Off to Wal-Mart we go. Girls section…. Again…only 2 different one pieces. So we found a tankini that she liked and I thought might work. We went to the young women's department. Yet again….. Only 2 different one pieces. But we found 2 tankini's in a size she might be able to wear. One was very adult in its fabric design. But the other was more youthful. We then went to the dressing room. Tried the one from the girls section first. Fit, but quite snug and not comfortable for her. Tried the more youthful of the other 2. Fit her very well. A 7/9. But the bust was padded. Luckily there was a place you can pull the padding out. Bottom was a good fit as well. The top was long enough and she really liked it. We tried the top of the more adult one on… just too big and not right. Sooooo…. It was #2! Very nice fit.

Well, I got to thinking, actually I have had it in the back of my mind for a while, this girl is growing and developing fast. With my boys, giving them "THE TALK" was a matter of them asking a question and getting answers from me. Just as much info as they asked for. With Hannah, it's different. She needs to know certain things. Things she hasn't asked about. Things that might scare her if she isn't ready for them. So, I went to Barnes and Noble and got a book called The Care and Keeping of You: The body book for Girls but The American Girl. It's a very informative book, without delving into the hairy area of sexuallity. It should help me open a channel of dialog that isn't easy to do sometimes.

Well, that got me to thinking about a few other things. I grew up with very low self-esteem. And I really want to instill in my girls something different, better. I had seen the The Dove Campaign For Real Beauty and decided to look into it a little deeper. They have this neat Real Beauty Workshop for Girls and after looking into it a bit, I signed up to be a workshop facilitator. I am excited about helping both my daughters and maybe some other girls to feel better about themselves. And maybe it might help me along the way. :) Later Gaters, Kai!