Celebrating Women...for the Real World
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Working My Way Out of a Job!
I never looked at it from this perspective but this is exactly what we are doing. No one warned me that this would be harder than parenting, but it is. Since the progression of G2’s teen years, his dad and I started pulling back, and now that he is 17 and driving, we have to pull back even more.
The mother in me wants to tell him how to do things, what to say, how to present himself, etc. One of the biggest complaints about the youth of today is that they are not self sufficient and still have mommy and daddy picking up the pieces. Not to mention the rise of post college graduates living with their parents (4 million between the ages of 25-34).
Yesterday I watched the Today Show, I cringed when they featured a story on letting go of your adult children. They talked about the parents calling their children at least three times a day when they are in college; asking for passwords so that they can apply for jobs in their children’s behalf. Even calling them to wake them up to go to class WHEN THEY ARE IN COLLEGE!
I have always felt that our job as parents was to love, protect and raise a productive and happy member of society. Now it is time to work my way out of a job and let him fly. I feel very strongly about this as some of you may recall the post I wrote about helicopter moms last year. After all, in seven very short months, he will be eligible to vote for the President of our Nation and he will be eligible to die for his Country. So he has to be able to stand on his own two feet and make his own mistakes and learn from them.
Of course as far as this concerns our son, the verdict is still out. In some areas I see him is very mature for his young years. In other areas I see him lacking maturity. Some tell me it is because he is a boy and boys are very different from girls. At this point, did we do our job effectively? Only time will tell.
Posted by Sheri & SuZan ::
12:20 AM ::
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I never looked at it from this perspective but this is exactly what we are doing. No one warned me that this would be harder than parenting, but it is. Since the progression of G2’s teen years, his dad and I started pulling back, and now that he is 17 and driving, we have to pull back even more.