Added Responsbility

Baby Tuna with (wow, he looks so young) Daddy at The Royal Gorge in Colorado

You're familiar, I'm sure, with the expression looking through rose-colored glasses. It means seeing things optimistically to a fault. Well, I think I'm guilty of looking at Tuna through baby-size glasses. Or something like that. 

She's my baby. 

But she's also a tween. Almost a middle schooler. We're halfway through with fifth grade already. 

The other day, we got together with some friends we haven't seen in nearly a year. We've known them since Tuna and her friend were in first grade together. I watched that boy lose his first teeth, and knew his brother before he was born. We made plans to get together for dinner a few nights ago. When the boy opened the door, gone was the young boy I knew, and standing in his place was a tall, awkwardly handsome in that pre-tween way young man. I couldn't help but remark, "Wow, you've gotten so tall!"

Then, Tuna stood beside him without saying a word. 

She's taller than her friend. 

Taller than the boy I, not three seconds earlier, recognized as having matured, grown, changed. 

My baby. She's a big kid. She's nearly to my chin now. She's changing, growing, maturing. 

And somehow, I didn't see it coming. 

In an instant, my view of Tuna changed. My brain readjusted, somewhat unwillingly, and I began to view things differently. I knew it was time to start giving her more responsibility to work on her own in several aspects of her life, including her education. So here are some changes we're going to slowly make over the next several months:

• Tuna will read her math chapter in Life of Fred and complete the Your Turn to Play on her own, bringing any difficulty to me for help. 
• I'll start giving her long-term assignments to keep track of: memorization, reports, silent reading, to name a few. 
• And I'll begin researching online classes that would interest her, that she can take from home, learning from other teachers. 

It's weird, seeing her as getting big. Even in this photo above, I see my Baby. I know that others see her differently. She will always be my Baby. I will hold her hand crossing parking lots as long as she will tolerate it. I will always read aloud to her. I will always have time for a cuddle. But, for her own sake, it's time for me to see her as growing and changing. I'll be better able to meet her needs if I do. 

I wonder: Have any of you had a similar issue, seeing your baby as a baby and not quite so mature as others seem to see?