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The Hardest Thing Parents Have To Do
A lesson in letting go
You’ve been a parent for more than a decade plus.
You remember the early adventurous days of hiking, walking, and biking together as a family.
You remember days heading to the beach, the pool, learning how to swim, lazy days of summer, and camp. I have lots of photos of those days.
But time moves on as it inevitably does, and soon you land in the teen years.
This phase has its own beautiful, joyful, if not hidden wonders, but the passage towards independence isn’t as easy as meandering days of wandering down a field path admiring trees, butterflies, and flowers together.
The teen years are a journey of so many things — what you learn almost every day is it’s a journey about letting go.
As a parent, this is the hardest thing you will ever have to do.
You’ve never been great at letting go easily. But the more you hold on, the more you realize you clip wings that need to stretch, that must stretch in order to live, love, and thrive in this world.
And most of all — to fly on their own.
