another sideline note

I read this comic strip this morning and while a few of the children here laughed, I didn’t laugh.   we spend years attempting to train up our children, they cry when we leave and rejoice when we return.  They cling to our skirts and hang out at the bathroom door waiting for us to get finished in there so that they can hand us dandelions and give us sloppy kisses and then… one day it sort of just happens… and they’re independent, they have their own life… (at least some of the time).  We’re never ready for it when it happens – but it happens with each child, and we sure feel dumb when it does.  For some of our children the process is greater and hits a bit deeper, and for others it’s very subtle and not all that noticeable most of the time.  But it’s another phase of life…  It’s all part of mothering from the sidelines. 

O, they aren’t leaving and they sure don’t want us to leave them either, but there comes a point where we’re just not as cool to them and all their friends as we used to be.  We sort of take the sideline.  As an older mom, It’s funny how I never realized when my mom went to the sideline.  One of those melancholy thoughts… I sort of join her there now… but in a bittersweet twist: I’m there cheering mine on and she’s still there cheering me on.