you know that feeling you get when you sometimes write a simple word like the or yesterday and you look at it for a while and wonder if it really is spelled properly, like you have never even seen the word before.
or when you look in the mirror and get that weird feeling like “is that really me?”
maybe none of you have had these thoughts or feelings. maybe i am just weird.
but lately i have been having those same strange feelings when i think about the fact that my girls will not live with me forever.
chris just rolls his eyes when i get all misty eyed and ask him “has it hit you yet that one day they will move out?”
i know i shouldn’t be focusing on these things and gosh it’s not like it’s tomorrow or anything but maybe it’s the fact that hannah is now 10 and man that just flew by. i felt like it was yesterday (yes it’s spelled properly) when i would see moms on the playground with “older kids” and think how far away that was.
now i am the mom with the “older kids”
believe me i want them to move out one day and be independent and travel and learn new things without me.
but i won’t lie when i say how much i love when hannah tells me she wants to move in next door when she grows up.
and yes i am fully aware that this probably means that she will move far far away.
sarah says
you are not alone in this. it comes and goes like waves for me….often the set is far out at sea and i forget it’s even coming, then bam! shore break.
amber says
amy, i always love your words. and i always relate to whatever you say.
more than you know, your words and thoughts and perspectives resonate with me.
diane says
amy- my daughters are now 20 and 22 and i am experiencing this reality right now. one recently graduated from college and while i was so proud and thankful that she was able to get a job, it meant a move a few hours away to the d.c. area.
we are particularly close- and even though she had been going away to college for four years and we now visit back and forth every couple of months, i went through a little grieving process coming home to an empty home after work each night, knowing she was beginning her own life half a state away.
we speak on the phone everyday and text throughout the day but man do i wish i could have slowed the world down to have them just a little longer.
it’s a bittersweet process, but you are fortunate that you realize how precious each day with them is.
melanie says
i have been thinking this more and more since we have been looking for a new home and i remember that my 13 yo may only need a room for 5 more years…and he has grown so tall that my 2 yo keeps saying “are you my brother?” because he seems like a man and not like the other brothers. sigh.
beth lehman says
i think these thoughts too… more often lately than not – at ages 9 and 11.