The Joys and Pains of Her Being 18

My middle daughter, also known as "my clone," is eighteen years old.

I love saying that.  For many reasons.  It means she's an adult now.

She's "all grown up" even if she still has me smell her milk and chase away spiders and make her doctors' appointments and cut her chicken off the bone.

She has the legal right to make life-altering decisions about herself and her future and the future of others if she so chooses.

She has now completed High School and is now a Junior in College (technically, anyway.  She has yet to apply for college, but she intends to.  And when she does, she will be a Junior in College).

So, when my Mother (with whom said daughter has been staying while she has completed her last year of High School, since we moved out of her district) has a conversation with me like the following, I honestly have a hard time taking her seriously.  I'll explain more why:

Mom: "I am getting tired of your daughter's mess around her room.  Every surface is covered.  I keep telling her to clean this room or we're not renewing her lease." (note to reader: she's being sarcastic...there is no lease.)

Me: "I've told her to clean it, Ma.  What do you want from me?  She won't clean her room here, either."

Mom: "Well, if she doesn't get all of this stuff cleaned up, I swear, I'm going to throw it all in bags and you can store it all in your basement in your house."

Me: "Do what you gotta do, Ma."

Meanwhile, I'm surfing the web, reading my email, whatever, thinking, "If this is all she can complain about my kid, I guess I didn't do too badly."

My eighteen-year-old girl.  Hell, I know what I was getting into at eighteen.  So my kid's a little messy?  She's a good kid, though.

In fact, she's a great kid.  She's the kind of kid most parents want to have.  I have no shame in saying that.

I also know this: my kid's got my dad wrapped around her little finger.  So, no matter how many times my mom threatens to "evict" her, my dad's got her back.  Ha. 

That's gonna work out good because when my eighteen-year-old gets around to it, she plans on going to college near my parents, too.  So, she's going to need to extend that lease.