<p>Doesn’t EVER get easy/easier to say good-bye! My D who is a junior just left the driveway minutes ago both of us teary-eyed. Sure she loves her school. She adores her friends there. There’s not much in the “friend” department here at home now. But it’s HOME. And I think she really loves being in the “loop” again (she’s the first of 3 kids - other two still home).</p>
<p>I think I’ve been thinking this break - as we talked about it a couple of times - about as time goes on and if she relocates for a job or gets out of town internships (so far all have been in our hometown) that the opportunities for lengthy visits start to disappear.</p>
<p>Absolutely she should get back to school. Absolutely I love where she is and the people who she is with there. Absolutely she is maturing and growing up as she should and as we have hoped for. </p>
<p>But I still miss her. :(</p>
<p>Feel free to ask for the box of tissue if you need me to pass one… :)</p>
<p>It doesn’t get easier. We put DD on the plane to go back yesterday and realized it’s the last time we will do this with her as a college student. She graduates on June. The next trip is a one way ticket here.</p>
<p>My S is a jr. too and I’ve been very bummed about this same subject. I loved when they were younger and we were all here for the entire school vacation. I am one of the moms who has always dreaded school vacations ending.</p>
<p>So I’ve been lamenting that we will probably have only next Christmas remaining where the family is together for any extended time. Then S2 dropped the bomb last week that he is quitting college and joining the Natl Guard. So, I went from bad to worse emotionally, in very short order. Now I have just realized this probably <em>was</em> the last extended Christmas together.</p>
<p>I really, really miss when they were younger. Yes, it has been fun seeing S1 mature. (been waiting a long time to see progress on S2). Still have D1, age 13, but doing stuff with her just reinforces the fact that it’s not all 5 of us together.</p>
<p>Hugs to you. Plass the kleenex…</p>
<p>p.s.-thumper–I like parents of older children to tell me it gets easier!!</p>
<p>Me too. Junior D flew back to school this morning after having been abroad since the end of August. She was only home for 12 days, so this was pretty tough for me. Add that to the fact that her brother, a first year law student, only overlapped for 3 days and you have one miserable mama! I actually made a dinner reservation for December 30 a month in advance and informed them all (including S2, who works full time) that I NEEDED at least 1 dinner with the 5 of us. It seems that time is more and more fleeting, as it should be, but I still get sad as they leave for their homes.</p>
<p>Hugs…many hugs. I have never had to say good bye to my kids as they go to school/work locally. When my son said that he was offered a job in Europe (said it at the Thanksgiving table…ruined my appitite) my heart sunk. But one thing to point out to you…both of you were teary eyed. She loves you. She enjoyed her time at home with her family. Imagine if she didn’t care…couldn’t wait to leave…was a behavior monster during her stay. Now that is sad.</p>
<p>Two years and 4 1/2 months ago, as I was loading up our cars to take our daughter to her college, she stopped, looked at me, holding a wood plaque I had made for her with clouds and a rainbow and the words “Just breathe” on it and said “Do you realize that I will never again be living in this house, that I will be living at my school year round and between school and summer shows will never be living at home again?” Talk about a tear jerker! It didn’t matter then nor does now that her school is only 35 minutes from our house. At the age of 18, my “little girl” embarked on her own course in life but as tough as it was (for me ), it was also right.</p>
<p>Pass the Kleenex, please…or the flowered cotton hankies that my D now uses will also do nicely.</p>
<p>My D left yesterday to return to med school way across the country after two weeks at home. It is 11 below there and her car is buried in snow!</p>
<p>On her last night here, I sat on her bed with her as she fell asleep. (She was very tired due to being with her high school friends for New Year’s Eve the night before–a big slumber party at the home of the first married couple from her group.) Was this the most bittersweet moment of my life so far? Perhaps…</p>
<p>I stroked her hair in the way she liked as a child and told her that I loved her and I am proud of her. Her first semester of med school was so, so difficult. She said she was worried about what the next semester will bring.</p>
<p>She fell asleep as I watched, there in her bed from her childhood, with the tiny, glowing stars on the ceiling (that we put up together years and years ago) fading slowly into darkness. That will probably be the last night she sleeps in her childhood bedroom as we are most likely going to sell or rent our house and move to our vacation house. The last night spent in your childhood home is such a milestone, one you can’t really comprehend until much later.</p>
<p>i used to think we had all the time in the world with our kids. and now it’s slipping through my fingers so fast and i can’t slow it down.</p>
<p>my son graduates in june, also. this last christmas was so wonderful and the entire break was delightful–every minute. which makes it harder when they get ready to leave.</p>
<p>i, too, was always the mom that hated for the school vacations to end–i’ve hated sunday nights my whole life! i love being home with my family–and i fear the loneliness–even though i try desperately to surround myself with friends and family, my heart is still a lonely heart. </p>
<p>i hope that i have a chance to enjoy my kids over the spring break, but after that, reality sets in that both will be working full time and out of state–the holidays will now always be shorter and shorter and shorter.</p>
<p>i guess we’re all in this together, so call your friends, call your family and keep doing things–even if the heart is lonely.</p>
<p>Have a junior daughter too. She just came down to show me her interview suit. She looked so grown up. I am going to have her for 5 more days before she goes back to school. This is probably going to be the longest time she is ever at home again. I am very sad. I told D2 that I am going to move to wherever she is going to college in 2 years. She is not amused.</p>
<p>DD (our only child) doesn’t get home very often but, when she does, I no longer cry when she leaves. I used to cry all the time, so much so that I saw the doctor about it. She’s a senior this year and I haven’t cried once yet when saying “see you later” this school year. It’s not because I don’t miss her. It’s because I have come to realize that she is SO very happy where she is and that her dad and I are so happy, too. She’s having a great time and we’re having a great time and it makes it that much sweeter when we’re all together. I just put her on a plane to Rwanda the other day and I didn’t shed a tear. She’s there doing research for her thesis and she’ll get back home just in time to leave for her final semester of college. We talk on the phone a lot and we also e-mail a lot. I can’t remember the last time we argued, which is so nice, especially when I recall the frequent disagreements we had when she was a high school senior. I prefer to think of those disagreements as nature’s way of snipping the apron strings. We have such a great time together and I enjoy every minute we share. Hugs to each of you as you shed those tears when your children leave the nest. Been there, done that, and am happy to report I survived!</p>
<p>Box of tissues needed here – We just took down the Christmas tree and put away the Christmas decorations. We’ve had both daughters home for two weeks; D1 is here for one more, D2 for two more. We’ve played games, watched movies, laughed, walked, shared meals – all wonderful family time.</p>
<p>D1 is getting married this summer, and so we are feeling the poignancy of the moment: this is our last Christmas as a foursome. D1 doesn’t know where she’ll be next Christmas (fiance’s job likely will not allow them to be here, in any case). She took the ornaments that she made or that were given her over the years so she can put them on her tree next year. She was a bit teary.</p>
<p>As happy as a wedding can be, we know that one long, wonderful chapter in our lives is coming to an end. And we will all miss it.</p>
<p>I am so there, too!!! Junior D went back to school today, even though classes don’t start for a few more weeks. She is going to work (for money!), she is going to apply for a summer grant, and she is going to write her honors application. I mean, how great is all that?? I truly, truly am glad she is going back for all those things. She was home for 10 days, and she got bored. I have to admit it. We had a great time, but she does not live here any more. She visits here… That is SO hard to write. She will probably not come home Spring Break, and she will live in the college town for the summer, hopefully working on the project she is writing the grant proposal for. And if she doesn’t get that, she will still stay there working at a different job. This is how it’s supposed to be. But, as I have written after each break before, this is, again, my head and my heart in their ongoing struggle… It sounds like many of us CCers are all at the same stage in our lives, and our kids are traveling the same journey… I am so happy-sad… and grateful for the online company.</p>
<p>Z, this was our first Christmas without our D - she went to her fiance’s parents this year. Last year they were here (got engaged in December 08). They will be marrying this summer as well. Even good changes can be hard! S was home for 10 days and left last Monday. We just took down all the Christmas stuff - it came and went so fast.</p>
<p>Well, I miss them when they leave, but their “real” lives are elsewhere.</p>
<p>My daughter will be home for another 2 1/2 weeks for Winter Break, with not enough to do. It can get really boring. So I will be glad for her when classes start again, even though I will be sorry not to have her company around the house.</p>
), it was also right.</p>