Recently, in my world, there have been a lot of conversations around tracking people using technology. It’s true that things like Find My iPhone have made it easy to see where someone is located. Some of these conversations involve friends who travel a lot and some involve elderly parents. But primarily the conversations revolve around kids. In my case, adult kids. For example, I have friends who say that because they pay their kids cell phone bills, they keep them on their tracking. Others have removed them to help the kids gain their autonomy. Because of these chats, there’s an expression that has been resonating a lot with me lately. It goes something like this. “Having a baby is like taking a piece of your heart and having it walk around outside of your body“
This is true for me as my youngest ventures on a trip to New York. While still so young and free, they don’t think about all of the things that could go wrong. And that’s how it should be. It’s just hard to watch them go and have to hope and pray that they always use the buddy method when they’re walking around and that they don’t leave their cell phone or wallet lying around.
And this child has traveled before. Went on a class trip to Japan and was far enough away at college that sometimes flights were the best way to get back home. So it’s not anything like a first-time trip. It’s just part of watching them keep growing up and becoming so independent.
The expression was also true for me every time we dropped our oldest off for some sort of appointment or schooling. The first few efforts would be filled with tears and begging to go back home. It takes a lot of strength to reassure them that they’re going to be okay and then walk away. It would be much easier to keep them sheltered at home.
I tell you this because for those of you who have followed our story, you know that all that hard work, and all that heartache, has proven what many people have told us. Early intervention gave successful outcomes. But wow, it was a lot of work.
So this post is a shout-out to all of you who are making the tough choices and working so hard to grow your babies into good and kind human beings. It’s a shout-out to all of us who have to work so hard to learn to let go. Sometimes I feel like it’s the toughest thing I’ve done in parenting.
You got this.
Leave a Reply