Tonight (May 29), my daughter, my youngest child, walks across the stage at Brennan Park Leisure Centre for her high school commencement ceremony. Two weeks after that (June 17) my son, my eldest, will graduate from BCIT.
Soon after, I hope, my son will find work and my daughter will be heading off for university.
At that point, my wife and I will have done, for the most part, our jobs. The children will be launched and we can look with some satisfaction on the people they have become. And, that's a significant time. A time for reflection, a time for reminiscence.
And so, on the auspicious occasion, I'd like to offer some words to my children: See ya. If you call and we're not answering, we're either (a) travelling, (b) busy doing something else, or (c) screening our calls. Leave a message.
Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't love my kids, but rather, that my love is so strong that it's best felt from a distance.
We've had lots of time together over the past 18 and 20 years respectively, and for my wife and me, it's time that we can shift our focus from the family's needs to our own desires.
And that shiny, new bike in the shop window keeps looking better and better. For the kids, I think that it's important that they start to learn the joy of independent living.
I think that they should learn that refrigerators are not some strange self-filling technology (nor are bank accounts, by the way). They should learn that laundry machines need to be loaded and emptied. They should learn that a vacuum cleaner isn't simply an object that you need to lift your feet over while sitting in front of the TV.
They also need to learn that the world isn't riddled with middle-aged men and women waiting to taxi them around, iron their clothes, hem their dresses and pants, proof-read their homework, clean their bathrooms, "loan" them money and let them use the car.
The world can be a tough place when you're on your own, and until you're there and doing it, that's difficult to understand. But it's only when you're on your own and paying your own way that you realize that spending $120 on a pair four-inch heels that you'll only have on your feet for two hours is probably not a good use of money.
You also quickly learn to understand that spending hundreds of dollars a month eating-out is a habit only the rich, the powerful, and the kept are able to afford.
So kids, we'll miss you. But don't worry about us, we'll struggle through. It may take a couple of trips to sunny climes and a few shared bottles of champagne, but we'll find our way through it all.
Remember, be sure to leave a message.
