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Sometimes I don’t cry when other mothers are crying.Is there something wrong with me?
Do I have faulty maternal wiring?
It occurred to me that I wasn’t conforming to the honorable Mother Code when my friend, and neighbor, began regularly succumbing to bouts of hysteria over the prospect of her oldest child leaving home and going to college.
Her sobbing jags began a full six months prior to her daughter’s departure.
I couldn’t wait until my oldest child did just that. At least I hoped he did just that. I didn’t want him sticking around the house until he was 32.My friend was so genuinely distraught over her daughter’s imminent departure that, one night, while driving home from the Dairy Bar that she and her husband owned she once again succumbed to hysterics, which impaired her ability to drive.
Her van was weaving all over the roadway.
A state trooper just happened to be behind her. Her car tags happened to say something about a “Bar” on them.The trooper pulled over my grief-stricken friend and demanded that she submit to a field sobriety test.This is where I have to chuckle.
My friend is a teetotaler and I can only imagine how mortified she was at being pulled over and then asked to perform the walk-the-straight-line, touch-your-nose, sing-the-alphabet song, pivot, curtsey, don’t bobble it, how low can you go stuff that is required.
While ‘walking the line’ she tried to explain, in earnest, to the trooper that she wasn’t drunk, just crying over the prospect of her daughter going away to college.Sure, lady. Want to breathe in this?I didn’t shed a tear when any of my children graduated from high school and headed off to college and I certainly didn’t bawl when kid #1 left the nest.
He’d worn his parents out with his teenage nonsense. I thought we deserved a break.
I guess, as a parent, I’ve always been ready and willing to move on to the next stage. Of course, my last child tripped me up, just a bit, when she announced she was graduating from high school after her junior year and heading off to college. Whoa there, little lassie. You’re doing what?She lopped off a year of high school and off she went, which hadn’t been in the plans—not that we’re big on plans around this joint—and that took a little adjusting to.Yes, I cry about mother stuff. I’ve cried when my kids used poor judgment or sold themselves short and when they’ve done incredibly stupid and dangerous things (and lived to tell the tale, thank God).
But I will never cry because they’re spreading their wings and moving on to the next stage in their lives.
At this point, I’ll save the crying for when … they come back! So far, so good. Each has a separate address from their parents.
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