I am the semi-neurotic mother of three kids, ages 18, 8 and 5. My oldest is off to college and my youngest just started school. I’ve been the single mom, divorced mom, married mom, young mom, old mom, career mom, and attends school-at-night mom. I’ve worked in the IT world for almost two decades, but still shy from programming cell phones. I have no free time, but when I do…I write or read or plan our next vacation or holler at whomever to give me some PEACE AND QUIET.
A New Beginning
I’ve been counting down the days until my son gets on that plane to Paris for college. Let’s see…9 days and 14 hours. I’m not ‘happily’ counting. It’s something more akin to dread.
I envy those parents who can drive their kids to college, keep them on the cell phone plan, get them lots of neat stuff to decorate their dorm rooms, and then gripe about the visits home accompanied by 18 loads of laundry.
In the last two years my son just learned how to pump gas, drive a car and flush the toilet; Is he really ready to live on his own in a foreign country??
Heck, he still says ‘Valen-times’ instead of ‘Valentine’. He doesn’t know how to separate the darks from the lights. He has a moldy towel collection that rivals many a junior high gymnasium.
Unfortunately I cannot kvetch loudly enough to stop time. My little boy is now an adult, even if I’ve fought it with every inch of my being.
Maybe I’ll start a memorial mildew pile in his honor.
He will have great experiences and will grow in ways you can’t even imagine. How hard though to be so far away! It’s hard to imagine that someday my boys won’t be within arm’s reach of me.
Comment by Hillary — August 24, 2009 @ 7:48 am