anonymous / December 9, 2014
I teach lots of Waterbaby classes, you know who I am, I’m the Dad with 2 daughters, one of whom is 17 and the other is 13 and I’m struggling.
In the past 2 months I’ve done 3 trail marathons and 1 Death Valley century cycle in 45 mph winds and a temperature of 101F. I’m not struggling with any of that kind of stuff which really only requires constantly moving forward.
Naw, what I am struggling with is accepting that it seems like yesterday, I was changing the 17 year old’s diapers and now I’m helping her apply to college. And the struggle part is that all the schools she is applying to are out of state which means come September she won’t be living at home with us. Yuck…
My daughter Kate can be and often is, an annoying teenager but how do I handle not being able to peek in her room every night before I go to bed to make sure she is ok and the blankets are up around her shoulders?
Or how about those mornings we get up at 5:30am, put on our headlamps and head out to exercise and them home to do Tai Chi before the rest of the family is even up?
Or when we are out walking our dog Rudy and we start throwing fallen chestnuts at each other and it quickly escalates into a barrage of chestnuts?
I mean, who will I make dinner for and then say just about every night, “don’t think I’m putting your dishes away”? It is of course my daughter’s birthright to grow up and move out and develop her own life and on some real distant level, I understand and accept all that. I know she will be fine on her own but I don’t know if I’ll ever quite get over missing her.
So my fellow parents, especially my Waterbaby parents, I know you are dealing with diapers and strollers and all that but in a wink you will be facing what I’m facing today, so just enjoy and/or deal with every parenting moment knowing at some point there will be an empty room in your house and because of your love and care, an emerging young person will be heading out the door.