Parenting an adult feels so, so very far away right now, but I love today’s post from Christina Routon of Creative Life Enterprises on her experiences. Enjoy!
________________________________________
Our son, William, turned 21 in January. This was a big deal to him. He started a countdown on his Facebook wall, cryptically posting the number of days to his birthday and nothing else. Only a close few knew what he meant with the random numbers.
He moved further west to Terlingua this past August, so we weren’t able to celebrate his birthday with him. When I mailed him his gift and birthday card, I started thinking about the changes in our birthday traditions over the years.
When he was younger, we did simple family parties. As he got older, we invited his friends from our homeschool group and had themed parties. My favorite was the Scooby Doo Mystery Party. We played the songs from the old Scooby Doo cartoons (yes, I totally bought that CD. I love that CD!) and got the entire family to act out a mystery. William and his guests had to go to each person who played a part and get clues. The guest who solved the mystery won a prize.
The Spongebob luau party was fun. We had a giant chocolate chip cookie instead of cake and blue and yellow Hawaiian decorations, We played songs from the TV show and did the limbo under a broom handle.
Once he graduated from high school, we’d moved away from friends and family so his birthday parties went back to being simple family dinners.
Other things changed as William grew up. I hovered less, offered guidance instead of instruction, and we had more adult conversations.
But some things will never change, whether he’s 21 or 31 or 41.
I’ll always be concerned about safety. I want to be sure he’s living in a safe place. Before he moved to Terlingua, we researched the area and talked about safety near the border as well as in Big Bend National Park. He left late in the afternoon, so his dad and I made sure he had a hotel room in Fort Stockton, the halfway point. It was our way of making sure he was safe while on the road.
I’ll always be concerned about his relationships. I want him to have good, honest, trustworthy people around him. I want him to have friends of all ages who encourage him to grow in positive ways.
I want him to be happy, whatever that means to him. He has so many dreams he wants to pursue, and I want to him to go out and at least try to make them happen. He’s independent, self-assured, and intelligent. I know he can accomplish anything he truly wants to do.
Yes, parenting changes once your child becomes an adult. But some things, the most important things, will never change.
For more from Christina, you can find her around the web here:
www.creativelifeenterprises.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/creativelifeenterprises
Twitter – https://twitter.com/ChristinaRouton
