I've got both hands on the wheel. I was coming home and saw the old Mercury Comet that my in-laws had given our son parked outside our house. Neil's home," I thought. Then it hit me. Neil was not home.
He was 3, miles away. At that moment, it felt like I would never see him again. In a way that was true. Neil's life had taken off in new directions. Kids grow up and leave home.
Gradually or all of a sudden, they become new versions of the children we knew, adult versions. Intellectually, this realization is straightforward for parents. We did the same thing ourselves. Emotionally, it is a different story.
Sometimes I think parenthood is a cruel trick played on unsuspecting people. First, we await the arrival of a new baby with some trepidation, not knowing if we are ready or what to expect. Then we meet this new creature. For most people, it is not long before parent and child have bonded into a relationship that makes each the center of the other's existence.
Then come the years of exhilaration and exhaustion, trying to keep body and soul together while raising a young family -- followed by the usual trials, testing and tribulations of those teen years. And just when you think you can finally enjoy these emerging adults, they leave home.
