Papa's girl turns a bakers dozen!

It suddenly dawned on me a thirteen year old was going to make her presence felt at home in a couple of days time and the significance of a thirteenth birthday hit me. I don't remember when I turned thirteen nor does it rank among the significant events in my life. The first in the list of birthdays with numerical significance I would say. This will be followed by the sweet sixteen, then by the I-can-do-anything-except-fund-my-birthday-party-eighteen, followed by the leave me alone 20's. In my opinion the only birthday that you can afford to celebrate well with your money or with the help of your bankers is the 40th. That's the age you turn credit worthy and debt ridden at the same time and end up becoming a complete (balance sheet) man.

But 13 is the new 21. My daughter who is turning thirteen in a couple of days time asked me to drive her down for shopping. Our first stop was Forever 21. I was a bit confused. I said you are just13 and you should be dreaming about staying 13 and not forever 21 because that's the threshold year in an Indian academics life, the post sophomore year and it's not fun. A shop named Forever 21 made me wonder why a Forever 42 doesn't exist. Guess forever forty does more poetic justice than the forever 21.

We then went to the Zaras, the Mangoes, New Yorkers, the H&M's she picked a few that her mom wouldn't approve of and then she picked a few that I wouldn't approve of. The reasons for the disapproval was totally different, my wife's approval was directly proportional to the quantity of raw material that went into the making of the garment, while I was amazed at the direct proportionality of the quantity of material and the thickness of my wallet, the shorter the dress the thinner my wallet would be....Finally we found the middle ground that just about covered the knee and saved my wallet from looking economically malnourished.

My little one is entering a stage in life that could draw parallels to Thomas Harris's "Im ok you are not ok" phase and this stage is in for the long haul. I am preparing myself to be on the 'Iam not ok' phase for the next couple of decades since just when my elder daughter reaches the stage of acknowledging the fact that I was as a 'matter of fact ok' my younger one would get there and tell me I'm still not ok. In short I will remain perennially NOT OK for some time!!!

On her way to 13 she befriended a youtuber guru called Lilly Singh who apparently preaches the same stuff we have been trying for the last 13 years day in and day out. Guess I got parenting all wrong. Instead of making her sit down and talking to her I should have made YouTube videos on stuff I wanted to tell her and uploaded it. Looks like the order of channel richness in the modes of parental communication is all skewed these days.

As the bundle of joy who came into our lives 13 years back on 31st December is all set to enter a stage where she could turn out to be bundle of rebellion that could last a full 7 years. All I can do is pray....for me and for all those prospective victims who could cross her path. Jokes apart... God bless my darling and  wishing all her dreams come true!