The Bigger They Get

Once upon a time back in 1983, Yes,Dear married a fairy princess me and before you know it (okay, watch it, it was 16 months later) - Daughter was born.

I gazed at our precious first born snoozing in my arms and thought, little one, you are so soft and beautiful and so wonderful smelling (most of the time). I nuzzled my cheek against her downy little head. I wonder what you’ll be like when your 10 and 15 and 20 years old? When her brothers came along, I did the same with them, trying to picture their infant faces growing into little boy faces and then young man faces. It was so hard to imagine their voices deepening and their silky cheeks and chins sprouting beards.

And I’m here to tell you, seriously, DON’T DO THAT! It goes way too fast as it is without you rushing things and before you know it, they’re grown and begging to ready to leave the nest.

Or maybe things won’t work out quite as you envisioned and it’s more like before you know it they’re grown and you’re turning the nest upside down, shaking it out and scattering the family to the four winds just so you can realize your lifelong dream of living at the beach which, apparently, your children don’t share and, besides, they want to get started on their own lives? Really? All three at once? How dare they?

I spent the last almost 24 years devoting nearly all of my time and energy and brain power - and let me tell you, I have precious little of any of those things, particularly brain power, left - towards raising them all to be self-sufficient and when they finally are, this is the thanks I get? They all leave? Or rather we sell the house out from under them and they make their own plans? Like jobs and grad school? Hummph!

My grandmother was right. Just when you finally get them civilized they leave home.

Only in our case, home is kind of leaving them.

Each has a plan. Daughter will be living in Chicago pursuing her Ph.D. Son One will be working and boarding with a friend of ours not far from where we live now (and apparently will continue to live until the Real Estate Gods deign to find us a buyer). Son Two will live with my sister, again near our current home.

So really, I guess Yes,Dear and I are growing up and leaving home too.

I know the kids are ready.

I’m just not sure about me.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Lessons Learned. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.