Momming Grownups and growing up once

I feel reflective on this fall day, so I’m going to risk thinking about aging and parenting.

Being the mom of young adults is really hard. In one way the job at hand is letting go and encouraging them to do more things alone. On the other, staying intimately (inextricably?) knit into their lives seems natural. You love them beyond reason. It’s even interesting to ponder whether you love them more than anyone else ever will.

Of course, even if you’re the mom, you’re a separate person. If things work out for the very best, you are destined to die first. That thought puts my job as a mother into sharp relief–I cannot make my children too dependent on my love and care, because ultimately that’s no kindness.

Maybe diving too deep into your young adult child’s life is a bit vampiric–to grab and live another life and lifetime. Their worries are like your old worries–life all over again!

The balance? I struggle to remember to enjoy the shared time we get to have. So much for parents to keep learning as we move through the different stages of growing up!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What have we learned about blogging, Facebook, and Cambridge Analytica

Image
Concerns have been raised this past week by experts  about the amount of information being collected and dispersed by a few giant internet companies  after widespread reports  that U. K. - based Cambridge Analytica used data from more than 50 million Facebook accounts to influence the 2016 USA presidential election.   Folks are also starting to wonder how secure their personal information is on social media networks. News reports  claim that it increasingly depends on where people live and access the web on the planet. Keeping ones privacy online is no longer - and may never have been -  easy, if at all possible.  While there are articles that provide users with advice and guidelines on how to use the internet in ways that protect the personal privacy of users , many people still give away personal information about themselves and often about their children through their blogs and online posts.  At this time of being sensitive to what is being posted online - pediatri
Read more

I Believe Introductions are in Order : Claire

My name is Claire Renic and I’m a second year WGS/rhetoric student at the University of Winnipeg, with plans to continue my higher education in women’s studies, with a focus on sexology. Being born in the nineties means I am a child of the internet; my generation has grown up connected, and this sense of connection shows no sign of slowing down. My relationship with social media and screen is one of the longest term relationships I have to date. For as long as I can remember I’ve been interested in screen, which resulted in both parents implementing restrictions on the amount of “screen time” both my sister and I took in daily. In all honesty, I can probably count on one hand how many days those rules were abided by… but the battle over screen went on for years. When my sister and I first got cell phones, they had to be turned off and put downstairs for the night.... again, you can imagine how long that lasted.  Some of the earliest memories I have of screen
Read more

Hi F! What surprised me most about Blogher 2012?...

Hi F! What surprised me most about BlogHer 2012? Not beautiful, crowded hot summertime New York. I realized that a big blogging conference was made enjoyable for me because I went with a friend or companion– hey, that's a compliment to you! But here’s the critical observation: There was not enough content or programming, I don't think. Did we miss something? There were the halls, and we saw several interactive presentations. But I think they needed more workshops and presentations. What do you think? OR what surprised you most about BlogHer as an event? J
Read more