Parenthood....the best job in the world?

“But kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won't be needed in the long run.” 
― Barbara Kingsolver, Pigs In Heaven

London was our destination this weekend and man, did we pack in a lot! I challenge anyone to not want to soak up as many things as possible in that vibrant city. A visit to the National Portrait Gallery fed the artistic soul. What amazing paintings are massed there, telling of the history of our nation from Queen Elizabeth I to the wonderful Dame Judy Dench. Then the opera, Paul Bunyan, to celebrate Benjamin Britten's centenary, performed by the British Youth Opera (and stage managed by our daughter) to the other side of the music theatre world with the stage version of Dirty Dancing. Our quest for knowledge was partially quenched by a visit to the British Museum, where I defy anyone to be able to see everything in a day! Our visit was rounded off by a long autumnal walk through Battersea Park, with it's stunning Peace Pagoda, and along the Thames Path, from Battersea to the London Eye, gazing across at the Houses of Parliament bathed in sunshine, a glowering cloudy sky massing behind. Portentous? Peace and politics...an oxymoron?

This weekend I realized with concrete certainty that my daughter does not really need me much anymore, and I find myself a little discombobulated but feeling immensely rewarded at the same time! This awareness has been hovering at the edge of my world for some time, but this week it has come in to crisp focus. We were able to see her in her world, as Deputy Stage Manager at the British Youth Opera, in London's West End, meet her friends, be led by her around the city she has come to know & now are watching her arrange to move in to an apartment with two friends. Stop! My little girl is officially becoming a London dweller? How did that happen? Wasn't it only yesterday that she was playing with her Barbie house and now she is moving in to one of her own! 

Patting ourselves on the back, we congratulate ourselves on having brought up a plucky, independent, almost self-sufficient young woman, who has completed college and equipped herself with a BA Hons. Stage Management degree. Wow! All that stress and therapy was totally worth it....my nervous drinking habit is now under control and those teenage years, rather like childbirth, are fading into obscurity. But,  we have also learned from both our children. Thom has taught us to love jazz, and to care about our world and Becky has introduced us to choral music, opera and theatre, and has shown us the meaning of "true grit." Parenting is a tough job but the rewards far outweigh the troubles, so when your toddler challenges you or your teenage daughter tells you she doesn't need you at the mall, or your son scrapes the car, revel in their determined attitude and savor the moment when your son realizes he is not indestructible. Those, and other characteristics will take them far in life and once you've been discharged from your therapist and the AA sessions have finished  you can sit back and  revel in the quiet home and the knowledge that they know how to survive in our modern world and how to put oil in the car and use the washer....hopefully!