This is a picture of my six year old and I taken late this summer. She’s cute, huh? And she’s smarter than a whip. She asks so many questions and I can just hear the wheels turning in her head as she tries to figure things out.

Riley started 1st grade this year. And she is doing so well.  Her dad and I are so proud of her.  She is in the hardest group for word study.  She can read at at least a 2nd grade level.  We recently had parent/teacher conferences and her teacher couldn’t say enough good things about her.  She even said, “if only they were all like her.”

Sure, we have your average issues at home of not always listening and fighting with her sister but over all, her dad and I couldn’t ask for anything more.

As I watch her grow up this year though, I am sad.  I realize that the easy years of parenting are soon over.  I watch her try to fit in with the other girls at school by wanting to wear a certain style of clothes or whatever.  She just wants to be liked.  So far, we don’t have any issues with that.  Riley gets along great with the girls in her class and has plenty of friends.

I didn’t really have any issues with other kids in school, but I remember how mean kids can be and how you just want to fit in and be liked.  Like any other parent, I don’t want to see my child hurt – ever.  I know that it’s not possible to shield her from everything no matter how much I want to.

I worry about her as she gets older.  She just wants to please people always, whether it be me, her dad, her teacher, or her peers.  I knew issues of self esteem would come up as we reached the teen years, but she is only 6.  I’m not ready for that yet.

How do I raise her to be proud of who she is and not worry what others think?  I think about that every day.  I worry that I will do or say the wrong thing and scar her for life.

When her dad and I brought her home almost 7 years ago from the hospital, we set her in her crib and looked at each other.  We were kinda like, “Now what?”  Little did I know then that it would only get harder as she got older.  My plan right now is to just let her know that she can tell me anything.  To keep an eye on her behavior and really listen.

To love her.