Ode to a Grown Child (With a Wink and a Sigh)

From the moment a child arrives—squalling, squirming, and stubbornly refusing to follow the instruction manual we never got—we begin the long experiment of raising them into decent human beings. Some days we nailed it. Other days… well, let’s just say frozen pizza counted as “family dinner” and call it a win.

The years sneak by. One day you’re tying shoelaces and packing lunchboxes, and the next thing you know, your “baby” is a full-grown adult with decades of stories etched into their laugh lines. They’ve loved and lost, held first jobs wearing paper hats, and somehow ended up running companies worth more than the Monopoly money they once used to bribe siblings into chores. They’ve become parents themselves—doing the gig with more patience, skill, and Pinterest-worthy snacks than we ever managed.

They don’t need our constant affirmation anymore. These days, they can get applause from a spouse, co-workers, or from the sidelines of a soccer field while coaching their kids. Advice? Rarely requested. They’re the ones giving the pep talks now, steering others through the maze of grown-up life.

And yet—how do you tell a corporate boss or a community leader that, deep down, you’re still just Mom and Dad, bursting with pride because they finally learned to do laundry without turning everything pink? How do you say, without embarrassing them in front of their board of directors, “You became everything we dreamed, and then some”?

We’ve often teased our son about always landing on his feet. Life has tossed him through more storms than a weatherman could track, but somehow, he always emerges upright. His sister too—tough as nails wrapped in kindness. But the truth is, it’s not about landing gracefully. It’s about standing up again, bruises and all, and dusting off the gravel with a grin (or at least a mutter).

They may stumble. They may cry. They may question themselves. But ultimately—they. will. stand. again. And every single time they do, we’re right there being obnoxiously, embarrassingly, hopelessly proud. Still. Forever. Always.