Member-only story
Parenting Changes in Mid-Life
Once a mother, always a mother, but the object of our mothering shifts
My son is 18 years old which makes him a legal adult, but so far from an actual adult. He got his confirmation for the selective service the other day. He said that he can now be conscripted.
I am proud that he knows and uses words like conscripted. I did not know them at 18 and I do not use them regularly at 47.
Time to ramp down mothering.
He will be graduating high school next week. Assuming that he can make it that far. It is finals week and I have gotten two e-mails from teachers reminding him to complete assignments.
I get these e-mails because I am signed up to receive the computer-generated e-mails that the teachers enter into google classroom for him.
He will be going to college in three months. He will be an hour and a half from home, at the same school I attended for my Masters's degree. I have little faith that it will go well, mostly because I cannot manage his life then.
Although I will paying for his school, I will not be getting these notifications. He will blow off assignments if I am not there to remind him.