The older we get, the older and more mature our children get. The more they want to separate from us the more we may want to hold on to them, yet let them spread their wings with independence we must.
This spring my two sons are graduating from college and finding jobs or hopefully careers to start their lives as individual adults and it will be challenging for all involved. It is a wonderful time of life. It is scary for all involved also. To know they must now try to make life altering decisions when they’ve been cocooned in academia for years and sheltered by our protective help and guidance, yet now considered adults without any real-life experience scares the hell out of me, yet I know they must make the same mistakes we’ve all made though it’s a different world fraught with what seems even more peril.
I’m sure they’ll be fine…it’s just the mother in me worrying. Trying to speak to deaf ears sometimes drives me nuts, but I remember being there, too. My parents knew nothing when I was that age either as far as I was concerned…I knew it all. Looking back, hindsight is 20/20 as we all know and as the saying goes, our parents knew nothing when we were 18, somehow by the time we turn 25 they knew a little more, by the time we’re 30 our parents are pretty smart and by the time we’re 50 and our parents are wise! Then the tables turn again and their intelligence nosedives…..as I said life is a funny, funny thing!
Wish me and all the other parents going through the process of separating from their darling children the forbearance, tolerance, grace and wisdom to let them fly from the nest, find their own wings and make their own mistakes for we can’t do it for them. We can council from the knowledge we’ve gleaned from having lived longer, from having made many mistakes ourselves, but in the end there are many paths to be taken and they must choose their own…..we need to be there to love unconditionally, pick up the pieces when they fall and suggest wise council.
I’m trying to learn one day at a time myself!
© Evelyn Garone 4.23.14
The Oracle Of Ahwatukee . . . 