It is a time of change. Endings and new beginnings. Warm weather and graduations!
There is no time that I feel my child is growing up too fast more than the month of May. The school year ends and we look forward to summer. We also look forward to the next preschool or school year! When she was a baby, every month saw tremendous growth and developmental changes. When your baby becomes a toddler, then preschooler, then school-aged, those changes tend to sneak up on you!
How do you adjust to those changes? Do you find yourself doing things for your child that they can do, because you forgot they have become older and more independent? I do! My daughter reminds me though. She tells me “You forgot I am a big girl and thought I was still a baby!” Oops!
It helps to keep looking forward! I hear so very many moms lamenting the “little kid years.” But just the other day I heard a mom say something that was so encouraging. She said, “let your birdies fly… and love being friends with them as adults.” She was expressing how good it felt to be able to have amazing conversations with her daughter as an adult, having dropped her mom role now that her daughter was a grown woman. She said some ages were better than others, but that we always have adult relationships with our children to look forward to. I know we all have times we look at our children growing up and feel sad. But now, when I lament stages past or those I may miss, I will always remember those words of encouragement and the happiness on her face.