Georgia: Initial Thoughts

When I think about mother/daughter relationships, I can't help comparing my experiences with my own mother to the things I have experienced with my daughters. While my mother and I never had what I would consider a volatile relationship, neither were we extremely close. If I ever had a serious problem or concern of any kind, I would talk to my mom about it only as a last resort. Ours was more of an authoritarian/I'm-the-boss-you're-the-kid relationship.

With my oldest daughter, who is now 23, I feel like we communicated about 100% more than my mom and I did. However, we didn't necessarily talk about some of the most important topics; drinking, smoking, sex, etc. While I feel like I was a pretty good sounding board for her when she had boyfriend problems or fights with her friends, I was hesitant to bring up more sensitive topics. I'm not sure if I was afraid of not knowing what to say or how much -- or if it was just uncomfortable and therefore easier to avoid than tackle.

The good news is that we communicate like CRAZY now - and I think she turned out pretty well in spite of my shortcomings in the communications department. And even more good news!! I have two more daughters to practice on. I definitely feel like I can discuss more sensitive topics with them - partly because I'm more mature and partly because there are more avenues for us to communicate with each other. We'll see if it actually makes a difference.