There are a ton of hormones swirling around in my house. Suddenly what was once my tiny sweet smelling baby is now a 11-year-old young man with very decidedly offensive odors. The changes are coming slowly.
He is still devoid of a manly voice and beard and although the changes are subtle, they are happening. I notice he is quicker to anger than he was a year ago.
He craves more independence and I find myself constantly pulling on the reigns of the boundaries I have created at home.
One of the biggest fights we struggle with is about him wanting to be out with friends after dark. Although we live in a lovely neighborhood, we live in the city, and being a former wild child I know that nothing positive happens hanging out after dark as a preteen.
I am noticing that at certain times in my cycle I am having hot flashes upon waking. They aren’t everyday but they are telling me that changes are coming. I was always someone devoid of behavioral changes around my cycle. Now I can cycle between tears of joy and raging anger in a matter of minutes during certain times of the month, which I am sure, makes me a joy to live with.
As I think about it I am finding it ironic my son’s body is just beginning his fertile years as I end my own, but the clash of hormones rushing and waning under the same roof can cause some horribly emotional out bursts from both of us.
Being the adult in this situation I try with all my might to take that deep breath but sometimes I am unable and I engage with a person who intellectually knows what is happening to him but has no clue why he feels the way he does.
Luckily, my husband has become adept at navigating the pool of hormones lurking about and gets us both to go back to being compromising individuals.
Most would think that my son is in the springtime of his life cycle as I enter the fall of mine. I find that depressing thought. I have never been more productive and creative in my life and I seem to have lost much of the self-doubt that plagued me in my 20’s and 30s. Instead I am thinking we are both involved in different versions of spring.
Except mine smells better.