Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Don't Blink!

‘Don’t blink’, they tell you. ‘Cherish these moments because before you know it they will be in college’, they tell you. ‘One day you will do anything to have these days back’, they tell you. After years of sleepless nights, chasing toddlers, taxiing children to and from activities, etc. you can’t help but think that those well meaning advisors are crazy.

As parents, I think we’ve all been in a situation, usually with our first borns because we didn’t know any better, in which we’ve wished for them to achieve their milestones in a more speedy fashion. I remember sitting back and wondering when my 13 month old first born, Brittany, was finally going to take her first steps. Eventually that time came and as the years have passed, nearly 20 of them almost, it still seems like just yesterday that I watched her toddle across the kitchen. Now, as I write this, she is traipsing through Central Park with her boyfriend.

This morning my middle child, Kyley, woke up as just that, a child. She was just a little girl sitting there wide-eyed and nervous in her boy band T-shirt and PJ pants asking me to quiz her with potential interview questions. Then I blinked. That’s it, I blinked and just like that she was a mature, responsible, young adult that had completed her first (successful) interview and was offered a job (which she accepted), opened her first checking account, and then we went off to pick up her very first car. I was left wondering where in the heck my little girl had gone. I swear she was just there with her dress falling over her head while she was upside down on the monkey-bars without a care in the world. 


I know that she was definitely feeling the transition as well. She honestly went from child to young adult in the matter of about 3-3.5 hours today. Thankfully she was able to maintain a sense of humor about it. After realizing the magnitude of the events today, she exclaimed ‘Gosh, I am old. I have to buy a purse now.’

She really put things into perspective when after I asked her if she was planning on going to a funeral after she opted to wear black on black today, something that is non-characteristic of her, she solemnly said “Yes. The funeral for my childhood. I am old now.”

That it is. Her childhood is gone and will only live on in our memories. As excited as I am to watch as she ventures out on this new adventure, I cannot help but mourn the childhood of yet another one of my babies.

So I sit here and tell you parents with young ones, Don’t blink. Cherish there moments because before you know it they will be college. One day you will do anything to have these days back. The time really does pass by at warp speed.


No comments:

Post a Comment