six year olds

What is it about six year olds?

My oldest daughter, Reasa, is six. The child boggles my mind on a moment-by-moment basis. I do not understand how one moment, she can say the most compassionate, loving, self-sacrificing thing, and the next moment, she can be screaming at me that I hate her or tell her sister she's ruining her life. Who taught my six-year-old that someone could ruin her life?

What's a bit terrifying is that in a month, I will have 2 six-year-olds in my house. How did this happen?? And regardless of the fact that they're only the same age for one day shy of a month, it's like having twins pretty much every day of the year. They go through the same stages, and they do it all together, and they just blow our minds. I remember listening to my mother talk to her friends on the phone or in my living room when I was a kid and shaking my head...how could two grownups be so obsessed with their children that all they talked about was how fast they were growing up? Didn't they have something more interesting to talk about? I don't remember the "what-am-I-going-to-do-with-my-kid" conversations, or the "please-just-tell-me-I'm-not-ruining-my-child" conversations, but I know they happened. I know because I have become my mother. When my friends drop in or call, our conversation relvolves around our children--their latest mishaps, their most recent accomplishments, broken bones, lost teeth, traumatic experiences...or ours, as they relate to our children. It's drama, drama, drama with kids. Always something to figure out, dissect, or resolve. Always something I can't figure out, overdissect, or for which I find no reasonable resolution.

So I'll continue to dissect my kids'. I'll try to figure out my six-year-olds. And my three-year-old. And pretty soon, they'll be trying to figure out theirs. Isn't this what parenting is all about?