pus filled ears and preteen pondering

Well,its all been rather quiet on the educational front right now,but it hit me this morning whilst I was scraping pus out of my daughters ear with a cotton bud that she will be a genuine teenager this time tomorrow.Its a strange feeling. All the years of worrying,nursing,feeding and attempting to nurture the Peanut and now she actually doesnt need me to do the majority of this stuff for her. Of course,scraping pus from infected ear skin and tending it with tcp is just too much fun not to share with ones mother,but there is now a mini adult where there was once a small child. Disconcerting,wonderful,terrifying and just plain weird though the thought is. In another 6 years,she could be off to Uni,all ready to take her place in the world,wherever that may be. Six years is gonna go pretty damn fast if the last 13 are anything to go by! Everywhere I look,my friends are bonding with new babies,beginning the whole process with all the usual doubts and fears,and here I am,somewhat battlescarred veteran of the Mum lifestyle,now contemplating surrender-or at the very least withdrawing the troups and handing over to self government. Its scary to think that after everything,in a few short years I will be putting everything I have tried to instill in Peanut to the test and letting her fly. Of course,you always know that the change is coming,indeed sometimes on the 3am feed-and-colic-and-no-help-in -sight dark moments we have probably all wished for the moment to come sooner,but now its suddenly drawing closer it is strange. I hope I can do the Peanut justice throughout the raging hormone fest of the next few years,and teach her what she needs to know to be a happy well adjusted individual who can go on to do what she wants in life. I am still standing by our choice to homeschool,it has opened our eyes to a lot we would otherwise has missed,and put fun into what could have been a traumatic experience.I like to think the Peanut will look back fondly on our attempts to home ed,or at least not be looking back on it from a therapists couch! Anyhow,the ear is oozing,and as riveting as Im sure all this maudlin mum crap is,duty calls.For a few more years at least its back to the trenches and the frontline :)