My poster child

The day has come. I walked into Faith's room yesterday and saw a poster taped to her wall. Smiling back at me were the faces of the cast of Disney's High School Musical 2. My husband picked up a copy of USA Weekend last month that featured articles about the blockbuster musical. He wanted to read the articles to her as a way of inspiring her fledgling reading, but she initially had no interest, he said. Now, after she's seen the sequel, she zealously rediscovered the newspaper magazine and its poster. Still, seeing the image of that poster on her wall was jarring. My daughter is a premature tween. As a young child, I didn't tack posters on my wall. They didn't jive with my wallpaper's miniature roses. I did make an exception for Rocky Balboa in the seventies but I was already well into my teens. I do take some consolation that my child is more interested in the girls in the movie than the boys at this point. But I know it won't be long before she starts getting starry eyes over the current teen idols. I'm not sure exactly when The Monkees' Davy Jones first caught my eye, but I was Faith's age when they were on television. Then came my crushes on Donny Osmond and David Cassidy. I even had a real "boyfriend" who brought me gifts at Valentine's Day when I was in the first and second grades. Now that I think of it, Faith is probably right on track, it's just a little faster track than Mommy would like for her baby.

- Liz Fabian