I remember each stage for each of my children like it was just a month or so ago...
which would be impossible because there is an eleven year age difference between the oldest and youngest. Somehow those who have parented before us warn us of these times, when we will look back and wish we had more time with them. Their words of wisdom should have been taken more seriously. I am fortunate to meet wonderful people each day in the communities we serve and I can appreciate the different stages of life that they are embracing from parenting to grandparenting (although I likely won't experience this within the next decade or so), or maybe it is their nieces and nephews that they are watching sprout from infant to adult.
As a young mom myself, many of my friends are just beginning their families (at a more "normal" age) and I often have many melancholic feelings thinking back on those days when my energetic or sometimes anxious boys would reach for my safe hand to cross the street or my strong independent daughter trusted the words of wisdom that I shared with her.
Now my youngest son, Matthew is in middle school and still values some of what I say, and my beautiful daughter, Amanda is spreading her wings stretching for greater independence establishing her individualism and she transforms to a young woman, a transformation that I understand intellectually, but struggle with daily.
My older boys, my own son Andrell in college learning a plethora of diverse lessons, and my bonus sons Mike and Nick both of whom are navigating the work world and starting out on their own, we only hoping that every now then they glimpse into lessons we showed them from our own rearview mirrors. After all, it can be tough when the people you bring in to this world think that you don't really know what you are talking about.
I remember reading a book titled The World According to Humphrey with my class of third graders when I was an elementary school teacher. In the book the main character, Humphrey was a hamster, who observed the inside of families as he went home with each class member over the weekends. One weekend none of the students could take Humphrey home so the principal, Principal Morales, brought Humphrey home and what Humphrey learned was that Principal Morales had it all together but at home his own children did not listen to his words of wisdom. You see in each home that Humphrey visited his goal was to improve the lives of the family before Monday morning.
Sometimes, parenting (whether your own child or someone else's) can feel that way. You know you have it together professionally, you know you have chartered some of the very waters your children have yet to embark and you try to impart some of the knowledge you learned along the way to spare them dead ends or blistered feet from taking well worn, or broken hearts all the while still wanting them to be the spirited trail blazers you have reared, believed in, and loved from the moment you first knew of their existence.
Although, maybe I did not listen when those that went before me told me that this time would fly by. Hhhmmm... How is that for full circle?
Contributed by Tracey Holmes
The awesome team of Katrina Eileen Real Estate Team is led by Katrinaherself. Katrina can be reached at (425)931-3275.
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Katrina Eileen
Snohomish County Realtor®
Keller Williams Realty Bothell
(425) 931-3275
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# posted by
Katrina Eileen @ 1:23 PM
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