I wistfully look back as I look forward to another school year quickly approaching and the evidence of my "work" is becoming less and less my handiwork.
Our youngest has just moved on to middle school. Josh has moved into high school and the oldest has graduated from high school and about "start" her life.
We've had a tacit arrangement with the kids. We do NOT want boomerang kids coming back to haunt us. So they have always been told, they are staying with us until they are REALLY ready to go out and that includes the joke that college has become.
Sadly, despite the fact that I have spent a good chunk of my career working in higher education, I know that it is a folly to think that sending a child off to college is preparing them for much other than to have a lifetime of loans.
Thankfully, Amanda has gotten the message. She has a plan to go to local community college for a degree and career path that has growth and upward mobility. You
The weird part? Now looking at it, being a parent is a job really designed to work itself out of existence. Presumably, these beings will become their own and not REALLY need us any more.
At least, that's the goal.
I will always view myself as a parent, but like so many jobs today. It is not a career with a 30 year life span at the same place. It evolves and means that what you did even two-three years ago is not what you are going to be doing in the next two to three years.
Course, this is true until we become grandparents. Which had better be a while off.