A Limited Time Engagement

November 10, 2018 (200 words)

The hardcore nuclear family, raising-of-children thing is only a temporary gig. Depending on how many kids you have, and how you decide to space them, you’re looking at a twenty or twenty-five year window, tops.

If they don’t marry and move away, they move out. And even if they are still under your roof, they are now completely self-motivated, and operate on their own, independent schedule.

Sharing the evening meal around the same table every night is but a memory. Exchanging a few pleasantries in the morning on the way out the door, or at the end of the day before retreating to our respective corners of the family abode, is the new routine.

Allowing our now-grown-up offspring to find their own way, and make up their own mind, requires a different skill set than the one previously employed to look out for their every need, and maintain a constant vigil for their moment-by-moment safety.

But apparently this is the natural order of things. One is left adjusting to a rather empty and very quiet house. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Robert J. Cavanaugh, Jr.
November 10, 2018