Letting Go of my Teenager
This is it.
This is the day that I'm half dreading, half celebrating.
My 16-year-old son is on his way home from school. No doubt his heart is beating with excitement as he waits in anticipation of this rite of passage that will take place this afternoon. He's been practicing for almost a year now. To me, it feels like just mere weeks. We've allowed him to slip behind the wheel of our car and van, teaching him how to navigate through traffic and saving him more than once from the collision of metal upon metal in a near-miss.
He has completed the required number of hours of driving practice and our vehicles have survived without a scratch on them. He has driven from Michigan to Chicago on the expressway in heavy traffic. The state says he's ready for the piece of plastic that will enable him to drive without a parent in the car.
The problem is... I'm not ready.
I am so not ready.
There's really no reason to hold him back, but I want to come up with something that will postpone this. Perhaps I can punish him a bit longer for his sailor mouth last week. Maybe I can petition the state to change the driving age. Sorry honey, the state has postponed the driving age to 21. Tough luck, kid.
The thing is, the teenage years are moving far too quickly for me to process. How in the world did I go from tearing my hair out at a toddler to the mom of a teenager who is constantly talking about the freedom he'll have once he has that license in his hand? How is it possible that time could fly by so fast?
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