The lady who helps me with house work enters my room with “I have great news”, her eyes in tears. “My youngest got admitted to two schools of his dream, one here, the other one abroad and he wants to go abroad and I do not know what to do” – tears rolling now. “Oh Maria! You are crying because you realize the youngest of your three kids is now an adult ready to leave the nest…”. “When did it all happen?!” tears rolling even faster now “I want the best for him but cannot let him go”. All tears of joy I have to say. Her daughter is also getting married in a month. Quite an eventful period for her family. 

The moment my daughter left the room she was in with me is still vivid in my mind. She was 12 month old and the greatest distance between us up to that moment was one meter. When she left nonchalantly the room and came back 5 seconds after with a face of ‘why-are-you-not following me?” I was breathless and speechless.

It was a moment of truth. Kids grow up. They have to. It’s in their job description. And they choose their path and their destination. Parents prepare them, feed them, nurture them, cuddle them in the best way they can, in the best nest possible and a time comes when kids outgrow all that and take their own flight. It’s their own moment of springing into life. Clipping their wings? I would call it a sin.

Keeping a welcoming nest to harbour them when they need it it’s all a parent can do. It can be a prety serene thing to do, as a parent, a guardian and a nest-keeper.