This has been fun to read!!! Sorry, guys!!!

I am 40 now, and the mother of a quickly maturing 12 year old. I remembered some "rules" I had as a child and I broke nearly every one of them raising my own.

First one, piercing the ears...my parents said I could do it at 13, and that's when I did. My daughter and I made an agreement (with her dad's blessing), when she was about 7-8, and when she spent 30 nights in her own bed without trying to get in the bed with me, or with her dad and his wife, she could get her ears pierced. It worked!!

I remember that my sister's razor fascinated me (she was 4 years older than I). In the fifth grade, I decided to "try" it without asking, first. Then I got scared, after one leg, so I stopped. My mom busted me that night! LOL!! Since then, I have done the obligatory shaving on a regular basis! I remember that one of my friends sent me an email right after I started dating Scott and said that now I would have to shave my legs more often!! When Helen was ready to shave in the 5th grade, I said ok, but warned her that once she started, it would never end!

As for makeup, I think it is too early. On occasion, she wears a little lipgloss and I notice mascara (blue) every now and then, but she hasn't gone beyond that. But she is a very mature 12 years old, having already hit puberty when I didn't until I was 16!

I usually wear makeup every day, but like many of you, if nothing else, I am going to have my eyelashes!! Black Mascara all the way!! My mother said to me, last fall, that I needed to "keep myself up" since I had found a new man!! LOL!!! And I do find myself doing it for him!!

Logan