The 10 Commandments of the Middle School Mom

Living up to expectations and standards put on by peers, teachers, and the media is hard enough — expecting your child to be an all-state flutist with a 4.0 GPA just because you were is going to make things even harder. It's one thing to talk about your glory days and how you got through your awkward tween years as a way to be helpful and appear less mom, more human — but it's another thing to encroach on their individualism and the way they want to pursue interests to the point where they feel like you'll accept them more if they're like you were, rather than who they want to be.