Seeing through the eyes of a child

[mammypoet]

I have recently been talking and spending time with my sister in law who has just turned 12. She's having a lot of problems with her parents at the moment (she wants more freedom, to feel she's being heard by them etc). And we decided to write a poem about how she feels. It is my hope that it make help other parents to see where their children may be coming from when they rebel...

Always know I love you
I don't want to see you sad
Always know I try for you
I don't want you to see me as bad
But when you get upset
When I am just being me
Makes me feel sad and that I shouldn't be me
I am young and you are not
We see through different eyes
I see play and having fun
When you see relaxing times
You tell me to shut up
And that makes me hurt
You tell me to stop being silly
Like I shouldn't be seen or heard
I am so young and pure
I just want to have fun
Tell me when did you stop being this way?
Was it when you became my mum?
I want to sing and dance, and join in with the crowd
I want to feel safe and loved
I still want you around
I need you to catch me when ever I fall
But I also need you to help me brush it off and send me back out for more
You see this is how I learn
How I find my way
That is just how life is
Just show me that I have always got you
In a place where I can feel safe and stay.

How I want to feel free
How I want to sit with my friends and just be
How I love my life
How I feel so guarded and never right
I want to feel trusted, like I can make decisions on my own
I also want to feel safe to know I can always come home
It's ok when you want me home by 9
It's ok because you gave me that freedom up until that time
Step by step we find our way
As we decide together
Our choices equally weighed
It's ok for me to go there but only for so long
It's ok for me to travel as long as I'm not on my own
This give me more validity than you will ever know
This makes me feel trusted and valued within my own home
You seeing me for the explorer that I am
Makes me see me through your eyes
And how treasured and trusted I really am.

I also forgot to mention I also have 2 children of my own, 1 boy (7months) and 1 girl (2 years). So I don't have to go through it.. yet! But sometimes you can see more clearly when your not so involved. I talk to both my sister in law and mother in law about each other. They both are exactly alike! Both get angry and frustrated with other. The mother wants to protect her daughter dearly but the daughter is feeling incredibly repressed and is fighting back in all sorts of ways (attitude, being naughty). So we wrote these poems about it. It's a great way to vent emotions.. and who knows maybe someday she will give one to her mam so her mam can hear her speaking just from her heart x