When you are raising babies, you feel how long the days are, but when you’re raising teens, you feel with every single bone in your body, how short the years are.

Cheryl Donely

Empty Nesters?

My wife and I were just talking about this the other day. I remember having three little ones, a nine year old, five year old and a newborn at one point, thinking this is so incredibly hard. I’m looking forward to the days when they graduate from high school and they spread their wings and they become adults and how the relationship changes when that happens. And now we’re to that point where our oldest will be 25 this year, our middle child will be 20 this summer, and our youngest turns 14 later this summer. Now I’m holding on with everything I have to the 14 year old, realizing that in four or five short years we’ll be empty nesters. And that’s kind of scaring me. 

Parents who have adult children who live out of town know that seeing each other in person only happens a handful of times a year, especially if they live states away. Our oldest child has set up in Orlando. I had a quick work trip over the weekend, a three day weekend kind of thing. I was planning on seeing him on Saturday and then nature happened. There was a tropical storm that was barreling from Mexico into the Florida panhandle and there was the threat in Orlando of the weather being severe enough to delay flights, so I didn’t risk it. I needed to get home to get back to work, and I wasn’t able to see my son. I was really disappointed we didn’t get to spend some quality time together. So I think what we’re gonna have to do is invest, spend the money, and get down there as soon as possible to hang out and make some memories.

Our middle child is adulting and has gone off to a part-time job in the great big state of Montana. It is so far away. Her wifi is limited, so we just can’t text or FaceTime her anytime, but my wife and I were so excited to get a picture from her yesterday. It’s my beautiful daughter’s smiley face with French braids leading her first guest group on a hike. There are blue skies and big puffy Montana clouds down a dirt road. She looks like she’s having the time of her life and it made me smile.

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Parenting Success

Late last night, my 13-year-old son found his older brother’s pull up bar that was disassembled. And I hear, “Dad come here. I need your help.” I’m sitting relaxing, kind of winding down on my phone, got the TV on, and I’m like, oh, I don’t want to do this, but I should go upstairs. So I went upstairs and then I discovered that he had this pull up bar disassembled and was trying to put it together. The directions were kind of funny and there’s moving parts and there’s angles, and you know, it’s gotta be put together correctly or he’s gonna do a pull up and he is gonna fall flat on his back. So we figured it out together and I can go back and think in my head, I did not fail. I didn’t stay on the couch and say, “no, this is my time I’m not coming upstairs.” I did the right thing and we had a special moment putting it together. And I’m just glad that I learned to be a better parent by success last night.

Encouragement for Parents

If you’re a parent, you can learn to be a better one by either succeeding at something and doing it well, or by failing. I’ve had plenty of those in my life. We all make mistakes. If you’re like me, there’s not a day that goes by that you don’t think of some dumb thing you did in your past. Some mistake, something that you did that hurt someone. I don’t know about you, but this is exactly what I need to hear right now in this moment:

“I forgive you now. It’s time to forgive yourself.”  

Love, God

Parents, don’t get hung up on the mistakes you’ve made in the past. Lean on God and let Him help you become the parent you want to be.

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God bless you. Stay hopeful!

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