Parents of teenagers - tell me what you wish you'd done more of when they younger kids....

[Legacy]

Mine are nearly 10 and 7, and I can feel the teen years approaching with the eldest.

Tell me what I should be enjoying most about this pre-teen age, so I can do lots of it now, and won't look back wistfully in 5-6 years time...

We're also a very tactile family, so for example I'll find myself absent-mindedly twiddling DS1's lovely thick, blonde, curly hair

BUT
I can't bear to think that in the future he might get himself a girlfriend and prefer her to do this instead...

anything that you both enjoy. Mine are teenagers now and I wish I'd told them off less and praised them more.

nowt - i was perfect - though craft type stuff was great

Writing stuff down is a really good idea, so that you remember it in years to come. In the olden days (my DDs are now 16 and 13), I kept a diary for this purpose - don't gag. I do remember writing down a comment DD1 made when coming up for air after getting a mouthful of sea water once. She was only about 5 and spluttered "Playdoh!"

Also, take loads and loads of photos. I'm truly rubbish at this and whole years seem to have gone by so that I can't now remember what they looked like at what age.

And record their voices if you can, you won't believe it to listen back to years later... my girls love doing this.

Oh dear. It takes me quite a lot (hard faced emoticon) to get me going but can feel myself welling up.

DD is 13. She is an only child and I won't have another. And, frankly, if I 6did6 have another it wouldn't be her.

She used to sleep in with me a couple of times a week (XDP worked away an awful lot, every time he was away she would sleep with me. It was lovely). That has all stopped now and it would be lovely to have that again.

The look on her face at Christmas. I get very sad at the threads at Christmas time when people are grumbling about naff old Father Christmas in the shopping centres. Bloody hell let them go and see Father Christmas whilst you can!

Reading to her. I really, really, really wish I read more books to her.

I wish I hadn't been too lazy tired to push her on the swings all the time.

School plays. She will never have a tea towel on her head and be a shepherd in a nativity play again.

Silly things like jumping in puddles and singing whilst walking along a beach. If I sing in public now (and yes, I still do ) I get the look.

Don't get me wrong, I actually love it now dd is a teen - there are real benefits, and me and dd get on so well. However she will never be a little girl again and it is very, very sad.

God what a maudlin post.

Oh, don't get me started on that Mamma Mia song. I sobbed whilst in the cinema when that was on. DD laughed like a drain (mum, you're so sad, etc)

Agree with the photos. I lost all of dd's photos when we moved once (box with photos got taken to the tip, nearly killed XDP) and I have hardly any.

I was saying to DH the other day that we haven't got much more time with the DC's really, they are 11 and 13 and the years seem to be rushing by faster and faster.

I wished we had gone to the beach more often, they have only been a few times and still say how much they enjoyed fishing in rock pool for crabs.

GetOrf at photos, I'm weeping at the awful thought. Dreadful.