Most of us can probably relate to the feeling of being embarrassed that your mom insists on kissing you when dropping you off at school, or generally feeling as if you've outgrown the way your mom treats you.
In a post shared to the Love What Matters Facebook page, a mom named Lauren, who runs the Oh Honestly blog, came up against one of those moments with her son, who is outgrowing the notes that she leaves in his lunch box everyday.
It isn't that she blames him, of course — she recalled feeling the same way when her own mother would tuck her in each night.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
"We'd done this for years," she wrote. "And then at some point I decided I didn't want to do it anymore. I was growing up. I was growing away. But how do you tell your mom that?"
She knew her mother must have been heartbroken then, but it's only now that her son is growing up that she's able to understand.
"Last week my son told me that his friends teased him because of the notes I put in his lunchbox," she wrote. "I said I would stop writing them if he wanted me to. He told me I could continue, but I could see the struggle in his eyes; the struggle between not wanting to hurt my feelings and growing up."
Though she said that the two of them found a middle ground that works for them, she knows the day will come when she'll have to let him grow up.
"I will take it well," she wrote. "I'll understand. But I will cry later. Oh, how I'll cry."
Lauren tells Refinery29 that growing up is inevitable, and that's why she wants to advise other parents to soak up the moments they have with their children.
"Savor those special rituals while they're happening, not only because of how sweet they are, but also because you know how fleeting they'll be," she says. "And when the time comes to let them go, it's okay to feel sad, but it's also good to remember that every new stage brings a new set of joys."
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Welcome to Mothership: Parenting stories you actually want to read, whether you're thinking about or passing on kids, from egg-freezing to taking home baby and beyond. Because motherhood is a big if — not when — and it's time we talked about it that way.
Read these stories next:
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT