Lemmonex led off a post on a Mother's Day get-together with one of those Universal Truths, the ones that make people nod their heads and usually aren't spoken because they're almost intuitive....
No matter how old you are, you will always be your parent’s babies.
The psychological fallout from that has been immense throughout human history, and I'm certainly not qualified to analyze it. It occurred to me, though, that from what I've seen, it’s usually the arrival of grand kids that shakes off most of the “parent’s babies” vibe. It changes into a combination of Senior Advisor, as in "I remember when that happened with you - here's what to do"; and Revenge, as in "Grand kids are a Parent's Revenge", or the fulfillment of the old parental jab,"Just wait until you have children!"
My family has been in this mode for a while. My three brothers and I all have at least one child, and my oldest niece will be 20 in August (I remember when she crawled out of her diaper and wet on my floor.... oh,Mike, stop that!). Both my parents are alive and well and relatively young(sub-70), so I guess the next milestone is the first great-grandkid.
It gets really interesting when the generations build up. My wife’s Mother and maternal Grandmother are still alive and fairly healthy, and she also has three granddaughters. The interplay can be fun to watch as I stay quietly out of the way.
2 comments:
I don't have kids, so not sure why the shift happened. Hopefully, they have not given up hope I will procreate. Either way it was unsettling...
I'm hitting that point personally--it was bad enough when my daughter hit puberty, but she's graduating from high school this Friday, and that's kicking me in the gut.
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