My daughter recently got engaged, and we are thrilled! We adore her fiancé and are so utterly happy for them and this crazy, wonderful journey on which they are about to embark.
That said, it’s hard not to think back to that sweet, little child who had such terrible separation anxiety that we got kicked out of Mommy and Me classes because she couldn’t stand to be away from me for the short 20-minute portion of the class where she was in one room and I, probably a bit relieved, was in the other.
She wailed. She threw herself on the floor. She could not be comforted.
We tried everything, including leaving my purse for her to hold on to, and giving her my picture in a tiny, wooden frame. She wanted none of it; she wanted the real deal, her mom. Mommy-itis, I used to call it.
And then a funny thing happened…she started wanting me less.
There were friends, sports, boys, shopping, school and art. I know it’s the nature of things, the whole prepare-them-to-leave-you thing, but as a mom, selfishly, I kind of liked to be needed that much.
So as we move through this wonderful process of buying the gown and deciding on the venue, flowers and food, I might ask her to humor me just a teeny bit and wail, throw herself on the floor, and be inconsolable. Okay, that’s a bit much.
Nah, I’ll just be content knowing that she needs me in a different way now, a way that means she can live without me, but she likes it when I’m there.
Check out the February issue of Maple Grove Magazine or go to our website starting February 1 to read our local wedding resource guide.
