When did I become my mother?

This question went through my head on several occassions this week. And I know what most of you reading this may be thinking. Well you are either laughing because you have had these moments or are thinking I am mentioning this in relation to being a mother. But ironically I am not.

This week was the second week of camp for my mental health clients. And yes I work with middle school and we have had all girls for this month. And these are girls who are 13 going on thinking they are fully grown. No surprises there. I have worked with enough adolescents to expect all that.

But what I did not expect was the abundance of comments saying that my coworker and I are old. Mollie and I are the same age. Not even 30 yet! And we were told lots of times this week that we were old. Several times we got reactions of the head shaking and "Oh Miss Erin" or "Oh Miss Mollie" that result from the "Are you kidding me? You are so lame that I can't even put it into words" thoughts of a teenager.

But aren't those reserved for moms? I myself did it often to my own mother. I thought she was beyond lame at that age. I thought I knew more than she did and it took me quite a few years to realize that I knew nothing and she knew everything. (I do apologize to her for that all the time.)

But when did I become that mom? I have a newborn..so I am not there with my own daughter. But apparently at the age of 29...I have achieved the not cool status with my teenage girls. (Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that I was ever super cool to begin with, but my status has decreased apparently.)

So Mollie and I have decided to just embrace it. We quite apologizing for being ourselves and making jokes that they don't think is funny. We actually now do it to get a reaction from them. And I knew this day would come...I just did not think it would be this soon..and not with other people's children. Lord help us. It may be a very long summer!