It’s quite the eye-opening experience, seeing your “baby” function as an independent adult in her own environment.
I’ve just spent the last three days in Toronto, where my youngest has been going to school. While I’d visited with her before, we had more time to spend together this trip, which gave me the opportunity to participate in part of her day-to-day life…and I find myself more than a little in awe of just how far she’s come in five short months:
- After having taken her first solo bus ride in small-city Ottawa two short years ago, she now navigates a subway/streetcar/bus system in a city of more than six million like a pro…and admits to having been lost more than once in the beginning, but she didn’t tell me then because she didn’t want me to worry.
- From having food miraculously appear in the fridge and cupboards when it was needed, she’s graduated to taking public transit to a store a half hour away, doing her shopping (and reading labels!), and returning home with bags heavy enough to give me pause. And then cooking that food (she made me breakfast and dinner)…and cleaning up after herself. She even remembers to buy laundry detergent!
- And speaking of laundry, she does that, too! Without anyone reminding her!
- And her kitchen is immaculate.
- And her floor is swept.
- And her bathroom is clean.
- And all of those years of fighting and tears and very nearly throwing my hands up in despair (okay, I definitely did that…more than once!) have paid off…in spades. I know this, because I saw it with my own eyes.
So while she may be moving home for a while again, this time with her has shown me that it won’t be in the capacity in which she left, because somewhere–in the blink of an eye–my baby girl became an adult. Strong, independent, confident, and an inspiration to her own mother…and that is how she’ll be coming home to us.
I can live with that. 🙂
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