Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Commiserate -- Kerry

"I'd like to have the perfect twin. One that walks out, when I walk in. I'd like to catch that big brass ring. I want everything, everything," Barbara Streisand/ A Star is Born, 1979.
-listened to on a vinyl 78 lp record player by a twelve-year old girl ready to change the world.

"Hey little Mama you're a class all you own," Chris Brown/With You/2009,
-listened to on an ipod portable speaker by the twelve-year old daughter of the aforementioned twelve-year old girl.

I suppose there comes a time in every parents time in the Western Hemisphere, or at least the west coast hemisphere, when we remember with crystal clear clarity being in fifth grade and what it felt like as we observe our children undergo the same experience.

Claire graduated from fifth grade this week. She was hacked off she had to wear a bra (ditto her mother) but even more miffed that she had to still go to bed at 8:30, because Lord knows she was old enough to rule her own life, thank you very much.

She blared music from her room.

I stood outside her doorway and debated my options. Should I play the hardcore mommy card and tell her it was time for bed or should I confess that I remember what all this growth felt like?

My journey with hypnotherapy came to light. According to a basic caveat in the art of hypnosis, we are all arrested children and communicate often as such.

So from one twelve year-old to another, I went in, curled up on her bed, and started to commiserate.

3 comments:

Jennie Englund said...

Kerry,

I had Claire in my heart yesterday when her old class walked through the Helman gym. I was hoping she was having her own great graduation up there.

Please come down this summer, and we'll get her together with all her friends (and yours!) at the waterslides.

Anonymous said...

Fifth grade graduation . . . wha . ..? Fifth grade, fifth grade? I had a nice lady who gave me fifty cent pieces for helping her clean the classroom when school closed for summer. Maybe this was a dark stretch of my history and I've gone blank. I'm impressed that you can remember anything!!!

-M

Kerry said...

Claire swept the boards with an academic presidents award today that brought myself and all the assorted family to tears. There is joy amidst the sentiment here. However, I couldn't help but think that her heart and mine have lived in two worlds these last three years. Here's to you as well Ashland friends.