My two kids are now 12 and almost 14. I love them to death -- but they are not the same little sweet-faced girls they used to be. I look at their old pictures and cry. What happened to my little girls? They were so beautiful, they looked up to me and tried to make mommy happy and I was.

Oh, how I loved staying home with them, baking with them, taking them on picnics. My whole world revolved around them.

Fast forward 10 years. They're basically good kids and straight A students. But they talk back, the don't respect sometimes (like their father), all I do is drive them back and forth to their activities. They have to be pushed to do their chores. They throw their clothes all over the house.

In a few more years, they'll be gone! What will I do then. I miss our old life when every day was like a fantasy world. I will miss them dearly when they're gone.

Why, oh why do kids have to grow up?