Little guppie in the Sea of Middle School

My baby starts middle school tomorrow. Well, she has orientation and I'm nervous.

Middle school has to be the hardest 3 years of anyone's life. People will say "I'd love to go back to middle school. Where you don't have to worry about bills or even what to be when you grow up."

I always answer, "Are you kidding me? Back to where your body betrayed you with smells and never growing the right thing in the right place at the right time? (think back to B.O., boobs, acne, facial/body hair) Back to where you never felt comfortable in your own skin? Back to when kids were cruel for the fun of it? Back to when your parents were their dumbest?"

I'd love to think it was just me that sucked at middle school. But I know differently. I teach Sunday School to 6th graders and you can see the wear and tear of middle school on them. Their stories of cruelty, both that they give and take, are sometimes shocking. Girls are the worst with their emotional torture. I've seen girls broken to the point that their parents move to another district to save their child.

Little princess can be emotionally fragile and she can be cruel with her words. Not many of the kids she went to school with last year will be at her middle school and those that are might be on other teams and she won't see them all year. Its a big place with 2,000 students in 3 grades.

I had this same talk with Big Princess almost exactly 7 years ago. "Honey, you were the big fish in the little pond of 5th grade. Now you are gonna be a guppie in the sea of middle school. Now is the time to give thought to how you want other people to see you. Middle school is almost a fresh start. Do you want to be the funny girl, the smart girl, the kind girl? It may look like its about the popular girl or the pretty girl, but its not. Please give some serious thought to the woman you want to become."

But remember, middle school is when your parents are at their dumbest so I'm not expecting her to take much advice.