The Trouble With Growing Up

The trouble with growing up is it is so one-directional.  There is no going back, except maybe to visit.  Childhood is a place you cannot belong once you have moved beyond.  This is, I suppose, more a problem for parents than for children.  Parents are not in this process and so can only watch.  Children in growing up are being who they should be.  They are becoming the people they are to be.  Their need is to move forward.  Ours is to let them, to encourage them, but there is no need to like it, not every day.