"But Mom, I'm Not Ready"
By June Rush
It is that time of year again, time to set the alarm clock and get the children out of bed to get ready for school. A very trying time for us as parents.
This is my daughter’s senior year in high school. It is one of the most important times in her life as well, and she is waiting with anticipation to finally graduate from a place she has spent most of her life. It is a time to begin making choices on her own; whether or not to attend college, or find a job.
I think to myself, “How fast she has grown to this important time in her life when she will be leaving home for the most part and trying her wings at the things she has dreamed about all of her teenage years.” How hard it is for me as a parent to let her go and fend for herself in the world, for you see, to me, she is still mommy’s little girl.
I take out the family albums, and we start looking through the pictures of her through the years as she was growing up, and we have to laugh at some of the comical-looking ones from the grade school years. We found a picture of her first bath after arriving home from the hospital. She was so tiny and innocent then. I think to myself, “Why couldn’t she always remain this small?” Why do our children have to grow up and leave us when we need them the most? She still looks the same as she did as a small child, but her body has taken on the shape of a woman.
I come upon a picture of her first day of kindergarten, and the tears begin to fall. I ask, “please, Lord, don’t let her see the tears in my eyes.” As I remember all of the wonderful and fun things we have done together as mother and daughter. “Lord, please help me to trust in you to guide her in the right direction, and let her remember to pray and love and stay close to you no matter what kind of peer pressure she is under at school.”
Suddenly I am shaken back to reality when she yells, “Mom, I have to go now, I missed the bus, may I borrow the car?” Oh, no, I think to myself, she is old enough to drive now and thinks she is too old to ride the bus anymore. She bends over and pecks me on the cheek, waving goodbye, and yelling, “I love you Mom.”
I think back to the time when she was younger and everyday I would have to keep waking her and reminding her it was time to eat breakfast and dress and get ready to catch the bus. She would always yell back, “But, Mom, I am not ready yet, the bus will just have to wait.”
We who have children are so blessed because they teach us so many things, such as, patience, kindness, outgoing concern for other people’s children, as they have many friends who spend years in our homes while growing up, so in reality we are letting go of more than our own children.
Those parents who still have little ones at home, please learn to treasure every moment you have with them, because before you realize it, they are grown and out on their own, making lives for themselves.
I for one used to dread the beginning of another school year, because along with it, came the responsibility of getting into a new schedule, taking them to activities at school, band practice, choir, or sports, getting out of bed earlier to make certain they were up and ready to go when the school bus arrived.
I have made up my mind to treasure this last year of my daughter’s schooling, and to enjoy every precious moment we have together because next year when she moves out or starts college or looks for a job and moves away, this home will be empty of the laughter of teenagers, and every time I walk into her room, I will think of all the good times, talks, and laughs we had together as mother and daughter.
Maybe somewhere down the road she will find the man of her dreams, marry and have children of her own, and this house will become a home once again, and I will hear someone say, “But, grandma, I am not ready yet.”
When it comes to parenting, what’s your definition of success? “A home in the suburbs, a family vacation at the beach every summer, a college saving account for each child?”
It is not what we provide physically for our children, but what we leave in them that counts the most. Have we as parents imbedded the Ten Commandments from the Lord into our children’s minds so they will never forget them, and how they will be blessed if they keep them? If your answer to this is, “No” then now is the time to start. i
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