How Baby

We’re almost out of the tweens here, and the takeaway so far as Momo’s peer group moves through it is that the process results in an incredible range of attitudes, interests, and maturity levels. As is true, I suppose, for everyone older than their tweens as well, but it’s so interesting to watch the start of that divergence. All the undifferentiated floor-sitters and pebble-eaters have spread out across an entire spectrum of adults-to-be, from ‘practically looks ready to get a job’ to ‘still watches Bluey.’

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This is mostly unrelated to the comic, but it triggered some self-reflection about motherhood, and time, and craft.

If I can get a little in-my-feels for a moment: when Momo was in kindergarten I worked at a physical studio, which meant I dropped her off at daycare in the morning, who’d take her to school, and then a high school student would hang out with her after school until Kev came to get her. I never met her school friends, or her teachers. It was an isolating experience that left me feeling like I was missing out everything. It’s now been over six years (!!) since I got laid off and went remote, and it’s been a real pleasure to be able to be a part of her school life and see the way she and her friends have grown up. Next year, she’ll be in high school (!!!!) and I know I won’t be welcome to be a part of it in the same way, and the mists of teenagerhood will obscure my insight once more.

Sometimes I get my head about not making too many comics about our day-to-day life. I feel this internalized pressure to take big swings, to point out injustices and offer reassurance to the hurt and lonely. It’s good to remind myself that these pithy little observations aren’t just jokes… they’re things I’m taking the time to etch in my heart for when there’s nothing but time and energy to remember. Love is a verb, and part of how I’ve done it, how I do it, is by making that love a monument – quiet little observations and all.

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TRANSCRIPT

Panel 1 (open; a standard deviation chart labelled ‘Standard Deviation of Tween Girls’, with the extremes labelled ‘chaos gremlin’ and ‘Young Lady’)

Panel 2 (Momo and Lindsay stand as if viewing the chart; Lindsay’s hand is on Momo’s back and eyes on the ‘chaos gremlin’ side of the chart)
Momo: What am I?
Lindsay: Ummm…