Growing Up

Summer time and the living is unstructured and easy. Sort of. Lots of screen and complaints about being bored. Eventually the kids get outside and all is well again. I can't have them in camp all summer, that would suck, but these long days of neediness and complaint aren't the most fun. I always do better with structure, and right now there is a serious lack of it. So I am kind of stumbling along behind my kids, picking up after them and trying to get them to eat on some sort of reasonable timeline.

They are growing up and out and do not need much from me a lot of the time. Until they do, and then they really do. I guess I also have to get used to not being needed as much. When they were young, parenting filled my every waking (and often, sleeping) moment.

Now? Not so much.

It is harder to connect with my kids these days, as they literally zoom by me in their rollerblades and I sit with my heart in my mouth for fear of another broken bone.

Parenting is never over. It just keeps evolving. I need to remember that and not get too agitated about it. That's my challenge. I need to grow up, too.