Confession nr: 1 (controversial I know).

My daughter is a smoker. She started in hide in the age of 12 and we had no clue about it back then. I quit smoke in order to be a good role model for my coming teens. Did it pay off, no.

I lived in a bubble. Only a few years ago I lived in a bubble of love. I had my view about how our life was but i did woke up, brutally. In the age of 13 things started to happen. It was a heavy period and when we tried to follow the "book" things got even worse. I realized then, in my awakening, that we needed to go our way as a family and do what WE think is good for us. We are not a family that follows the un written rules. We follow our instinct and hearts.

As a parent this is so hard. The last few years I grown as a mother and now, finally things are settling down. People in a power position (school etc) been having "much" to say about stuff but we have been standing in our power. Did it pay off, yes.

Now we have a relation based on trust, respect and two way communication. I am not her best friend, I am her mother but yet, she know i am here whenever she need. She can tell me whatever she has to and I have her trust. She has my trust as well, to one point (after all, she is a teen).

I learned to choose my battles and stick with the ones I chose. That makes her safe. She knows where she has us.

It is important to me to show our "other" side. Sometimes we look like the perfect family when i describe the love and all that but no, we are not. Honesty is a key word for me. I adore my crazy family and sometimes i am the craziest one but i think they love me too (smiles).

And of course she knows about this blip and gave me her permission to the picture and the words.