Empty Nest Redux

     Is there anything more stressful than teaching a 15 year old how to drive, waiting on SAT scores, looking for college acceptances and kissing the kids goodbye on the steps of their freshman dorm?  Not for me.  But somehow as you look back you realize that we all made it through and in a blink everyone is on to their "adult" lives.

     Apparently the next step in the epilogue of the parenting manual is how to enjoy your children as the adults they now are.  New realities include traveling long distances to see them in their own environments, counting the days until they come home, watching with joy as they obtain jobs or relationships that make them happy, listening more than instructing and worrying from afar when things do not go smoothly while knowing you no longer really have the "power" to fix things for them. That part of your job is done.

     The journey continues in a different manner but what a journey it continues to be!  Just as early childhood brings first lost teeth, the beginning of school, learning to ride a bike, going off to summer camp, the twenties bring their own sweet joys.  This summer we have been on the weddign circuit watching young couples take that next step in their lives (including PS Pam's son) and what fun it has been!  A good reminder that while things we love and enjoy pass, many other wondrous times await us if we open our hearts and minds to them.  When you have loved being a Mom and having children in your home, it is often hard to push on to the next stage.  But like a toddler screaming as you pull them away from Toys 'R Us, if you just relax, it all works out.

   A wise Dad I know recently told me - "When your kids are in their twenties it is no longer your role to say nay.  You must with enthusiasm say Yay about everything while letting them know you are always their umbrella if they need one."

As they say about Life...it goes on.