[Loch-Ruadh] FW: Can you relate?

[Tim Cantley]

This is for us parents out there :)

Sean

 >
 > This is so true and all of us have
 >      wondered when will
 >       we stop worrying
 >      about our children.  Never!
 >
 >      Is there a magic cutoff period when offspring become
 >      accountable for their own actions? Is there a
 >      wonderful moment when parents can become detached
 >      spectators in the lives of their children and shrug,
 >      "It's their life," and feel nothing?
 >
 >      When I was in my twenties, I stood in a hospital
 >      corridor waiting for doctors to put a few stitches
 >      in my son's head. I asked, "When do you stop
 >      worrying?"  The nurse said, "When they get out of
 >      the accident stage." My mother just smiled faintly
 >      and said nothing.
 >
 >      When I was in my thirties, I sat on a little chair
 >      in a classroom and heard how one of my children
 >      talked incessantly, disrupted the class, and was
 >      headed for a career making license plates.  As if to
 >      read my mind, a teacher said, "Don't worry, they all
 >      go through this stage and then you can sit back,
 >      relax and enjoy them."   My mother just smiled
 >      faintly and said nothing.
 >
 >      When I was in my forties, I spent a lifetime waiting
 >      for the phone to ring, the cars to come home, the
 >      front door to open.  A friend said, "They're trying
 >      to find themselves. Don't worry in a few years, you
 >      can stop worrying. They'll be adults."  My mother
 >      just smiled faintly and said nothing.
 >
 >      By the time I was 50, I was sick & tired of being
 >      vulnerable.  I was still worrying over my children,
 >      but there was a new wrinkle--there was nothing I
 >      could do about it.  My mother just smiled faintly
 >      and said nothing.
 >
 >      I continued to anguish over their failures, be
 >      tormented by their frustrations and absorbed in
 >      their disappointments. My friends said that when my
 >      kids got married I could stop worrying and lead my
 >      own life. I wanted to believe that, but I was
 >      haunted by my mother's wan smile and her occasional,
 >      "You look pale.  Are you all right?  Call me the
 >      minute you get home.  Are you depressed about
 >      something?"
 >
 >      Can it be that parents are sentenced to a lifetime
 >      of worry? (first our kids, and then our grandkids)
 >      Is concern for one another handed down
 >      like a torch to blaze the trail of human frailties
 >      and the fears of the unknown? Is concern a curse or
 >      is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?
 >
 >      One of my children became quite irritable recently,
 >      saying to me, "Where were you?  I've been calling
 >      for 3 days, and no one answered. I was worried."
 >      I smiled a wan smile. The torch has been passed.
 >


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