I spent much of those early months feeling so guiltily grateful that my kids were grown, but this piece has me realizing that I was still a parent through the pandemic. My college-senior daughter was in Europe when the borders closed, and then she finally came home for a long, miserable summer. My son was in the Marines, which he exited …
I spent much of those early months feeling so guiltily grateful that my kids were grown, but this piece has me realizing that I was still a parent through the pandemic. My college-senior daughter was in Europe when the borders closed, and then she finally came home for a long, miserable summer. My son was in the Marines, which he exited at the end of the first year. Supporting young barely-adults through these past two+ years hasn’t just left a bruise; it’s been more like wound that won’t heal or a cancer that keeps coming out of remission—and somehow I didn’t realize that until just now. (Denial is a survival mechanism.) This work is important, but I can’t read it quite yet. Too soon, still on-going.
I spent much of those early months feeling so guiltily grateful that my kids were grown, but this piece has me realizing that I was still a parent through the pandemic. My college-senior daughter was in Europe when the borders closed, and then she finally came home for a long, miserable summer. My son was in the Marines, which he exited at the end of the first year. Supporting young barely-adults through these past two+ years hasn’t just left a bruise; it’s been more like wound that won’t heal or a cancer that keeps coming out of remission—and somehow I didn’t realize that until just now. (Denial is a survival mechanism.) This work is important, but I can’t read it quite yet. Too soon, still on-going.