Parenting: Reaching Milestones

Here’s one thing I know about my daughter graduating from Elementary School & embarking upon a new phase in life: I’m not alone.

Over the past 7 years, we’ve been lucky enough to witness a tight knit group of kids grow up together and develop into the little pre-teen humans that are before us now. Their personalities shift and morph all around us and as observers we take in their growth with much fascination. Alas, we haven’t done this alone…we are a group united by a common denominator: our children. We are parents.

There are many clichés that can come with being a parent. For instance: those stories you hear prior to pregnancy about the difficulties of raising kids that you just tend to brush off (knowing, of course, that you’ll be doing things much differently). Then there are the “they grow up so fast” stories. However, there’s simply no doubt in your mind that YOU will do much better than any of your predecessors. You’ll be able to spend so much uninterrupted time with your child that none of it will seem to whiz by and you’ll absorb each and every special milestone.

To some degree you believe all of this, you truly do, that is until you are actually in the thick of it. Then, as with any rational person, you accept your missteps and faults and slowly begin to adjust and learn. This doesn’t happen overnight, but eventually it starts to sink in that there’s a great importance to learning from others around you, especially those who are going through similar realizations at the same time. If you seek it out, there can be a wealth of information brewing among your own circle of friends & family. As we age, we tend to realize that it really does take a village to raise a child and the best villages are those that share like-minded goals & beliefs. There’s the recognition that kids aren’t always going to be those little angels we place on pedestals. Mistakes are inevitable. Coming to grips with the fact that our kids will be okay making mistakes can be one of the hardest parts of parenting. That’s what a support group of close friends and is all about. “Mom’s Night Out” can be all about unloading and honestly discussing what your fears, heartaches or delights might be from milestones (or hormones!) that are occurring.

As we close the door on Elementary School & embark upon a whole new chapter, we look to our friends and know that the tears in their eyes are shed for the same reasons. We know that the nurturing and love will never stop but we recognize and that we’re all about to enter into a new phase in our children’s lives that we must accept and appreciate as these coming years will be instrumental in shaping our kids into the vital young adults we wish for them to become. We’re ready… (sort of).