Three colleagues of mine - Jan, Clarice and ShirleyW - decided to have a child. They'd decided to give up quiet evenings, lazy weekends and intimate meals. They'd decided to turn their sofas into trampolines.
ACE turned 18 yesterday! My "little boy" is not so little anymore.
Young adults are old enough that their parents are no longer looking over their shoulders daily, but young enough that many choices are still open for them to explore. They live in the now and don't think about aging or mortality.
Later in life, they'll start taking on responsibilities - making a living, finding a life partner, perhaps raising children. Their children will remind them of their own pasts, what they used to do and think at the same age.
Life becomes more complicated when we're in our 30s and 40s, as decisions made earlier in life now becomes more concrete and less open to changes than before.
Having turned 50, my life task is to generate. I influence the next generation of colleagues, either through mentoring or by example. At 52, I am between past and future. I'm particularly aware of time passing as I watch ACE grow. Having elderly parents, I am particularly aware of my parents' time passing.
This is also a time of developing a sense of mastery over weaknesses and character strengths to grow. Though still very stressed at work, I handle it better.
Albert Einstein puts it this way: “Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore.”
Kids have a way of humbling us. They reveal our weaknesses. This may be hard for us, as adults, to accept, but absorbing the parenthood experience is about accepting the daily situations when our kids shape us. What ACE does so easily at 18, I am cultivating now at 52.
ACE turned 18 yesterday! My "little boy" is not so little anymore.
Young adults are old enough that their parents are no longer looking over their shoulders daily, but young enough that many choices are still open for them to explore. They live in the now and don't think about aging or mortality.
Later in life, they'll start taking on responsibilities - making a living, finding a life partner, perhaps raising children. Their children will remind them of their own pasts, what they used to do and think at the same age.
Life becomes more complicated when we're in our 30s and 40s, as decisions made earlier in life now becomes more concrete and less open to changes than before.
Having turned 50, my life task is to generate. I influence the next generation of colleagues, either through mentoring or by example. At 52, I am between past and future. I'm particularly aware of time passing as I watch ACE grow. Having elderly parents, I am particularly aware of my parents' time passing.
This is also a time of developing a sense of mastery over weaknesses and character strengths to grow. Though still very stressed at work, I handle it better.
Albert Einstein puts it this way: “Weak people revenge. Strong people forgive. Intelligent people ignore.”
Kids have a way of humbling us. They reveal our weaknesses. This may be hard for us, as adults, to accept, but absorbing the parenthood experience is about accepting the daily situations when our kids shape us. What ACE does so easily at 18, I am cultivating now at 52.
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