This week has been an emotional rollercoaster.
Mark and I dropped our two youngest boys off at church camp on Sunday afternoon. It’s their first time to go to camp and they were definitely nervous. After getting them settled, I got in the car and started crying. “Letting go is so hard,” I sobbed to Mark.
And then there’s the upcoming wedding. Evan and Julie have been setting up their new home, but Evan’s been living at home and Julie is living with her aunt and uncle in town. Evan called about 10:30 two nights ago and said, “Hey, I just want to let you know that I’m just going to stay here at the apartment tonight.” I responded, “Ok, thank you for letting us know.” But what I really wanted to say is, “Will you sleep here again? Did I miss getting to both celebrate and grieve the last night you slept at home before you got married?” Oh the challenges of motherhood!
Motherhood is one of the only jobs where your job is to work yourself out of a job! I seem to be doing alot of that lately.
But as I’ve learned with our oldest daughter Anne, the “letting go” process gives birth to the “friendship relationship” that you eventually want to have with your adult children. So along with the grief of something lost comes the celebration of something new.
My guess is that this is not lost on many of you. Some of you have children starting preschool or kindergarten and you are finding yourself sentimental. Some of you have children entering junior high, high school, or college for the first time and you are wavering between fear, grief, and excitement for your child. And others of you are doing what I’m doing…letting go only to have something new and beautiful develop before your very eyes.
Whatever you are experiencing right now, just remember to balance the grief with the celebration…because something new is developing before your very eyes!
This is such a great post Jill – it is good to learn from Mom’s ahead of me in the journey. Thanks for the reminder to celebrate the “something new that is developing”
In two weeks Kindergarten starts for my oldest and along with it the letting go process. I am SO thankful it is a process! It will be exciting to start this next stage of parenting (and maybe just a little sad at first too).
I so get it…in two weeks my “baby” leaves for college and while I’m excited for her, I also know a chapter is ending for me. Now I have an opportunity to see myself in a new light…and that’s a bit scary!
I’m here as well.
My oldest starts middle school in two weeks. She’s also decided that she’s too old to go to Grandma and Grandpa for the state fair this year…. I’m a bit thankful though. She’ll be home with me for a few days alone and in a family of 6, alone time is premium!
On the other hand, my youngest two (twins) are going to preschool and I’m already stressing about them starting kindergarten next year. It’s selfish, but I’m worried about how that impacts my role – as a mother, as a wife, as a SAHM. I’ve even toyed with the idea of having ANOTHER baby just so this stage of life doesn’t end!
LOL
Oh, you’re making me cry! Thanks for the heart-to-heart….I needed that!