I spent all summer avoiding thinking about work, and now summer is over and I have to be an adult again. Being an adult is highly overrated.
It turns out that if you’re trying to shepherd a couple of kids toward adulthood, though, you kind of have to have a grasp of it, yourself. At least, that’s the idea. So I keep working on it, FOR THE CHILDREN, even though I would much rather… read a book, or bake something, or bathe my cat. And you know I’m allergic to cats (even the imaginary ones I don’t really own).
We spend a lot of time talking about our kids growing up and changing, and not a lot of time talking about how our lives and goals and callings tend to change right alongside them as we’re busy focusing on their needs. Maybe I’m just having a mid-life crisis, but I’m doing a bit of “what’s next?” over her and wondering if I truly know what I want to be when I grow up. I don’t have the answer (yet), but over at Alpha Mom I can at least tell you that I am for sure in good company in my confusion.
I enjoyed this piece…I am at this point too. It is amazing that we made it past points where it was a day to day or lets not lie an hour to hour struggle sometimes to the point where the kids are responsible and can take care of themselves. We long for this time to ourselves but when it comes we aren’t sure what to do. The freedom is great but so were all the obstacles getting here.
I’m older than you but my kids are younger (the youngest is only 9) so I’m aways from this but I still think about it. Right now I work, part-time from home and it works for us right now but I wonder what comes in between the youngest leaving home and retirement.
I am 70. I still am in the “what’s next:” and what will I be when I grow up. I ha ven’t grown up yet!
Ha ha to Karen’s comment, above. In my case, providing full-time help for the daughters switched to providing full-time help for an failing mother–who lived with us. And it was less fun. Eventually, my time was sort of my own (lots of knitting!) but you know what? Your kids come back! Singly, taking turns, and sometimes at the same time. And they have LOTS more stuff than when they left.