Earned the Right to Cry

I have been doing some commiserating with other moms of kids just starting college.

Melissa sent me this photo that I just had to share....

Yep, our kids will always be our babies, even when they head off to college.

Here is some tongue in cheek advice from another friend:

It was a mistake to raise such awesome kids. If we had raised them to be horrible then letting go wouldn't be nearly as hard. Make your kids rotten, folks. You will appreciate their leaving.

I love Melissa's answer to this:

Maybe if we hadn't done such good jobs raising our kids it would have been with jubilant anticipation that we kicked our kids out. Thankfully this was not the case so we earned the right to cry at their moving on down the road of life, knowing we will always be there waving, should they look back and our arms will always be open for one last embrace.

My Up-With-People musically-talented friend Pam always seems to find songs appropriate for the moment. Her blog references the song "Turn Around" by Malvina Reynolds:

Turn around and you're two, turn around and you're four.
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of my door.

Pam and Melissa both found this song from Fiddler on the Roof wafting through their heads:

Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older, When did they?
Sunrise, sunset, Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears.

So if any of this brings tears to your eyes, just remember Moms, we earned the right to cry!

Feet of Lexi (3), Mama, Ryan (7) 

Many thanks to Susan, Melissa, and Pam for practically writing this blog post for me!