Anonymous wrote:I didn’t really feel that way, maybe because I had 2 other kids. My oldest is wrapping up junior year and will be going to college next year. I find myself feeling very emotional. I have been thinking about all the steps, reminiscing of his younger days.

Pp again. I also have a freshmen son. I look at him and still think he is my baby even though he is taller than everyone in our family.

I didn’t really feel that way, maybe because I had 2 other kids. My oldest is wrapping up junior year and will be going to college next year. I find myself feeling very emotional. I have been thinking about all the steps, reminiscing of his younger days.

Yes, thinking about only 3 more full family summers feels odd. Maybe the kids will spend summers home from college but likely they'll be spending more time working or interning each year.

All of HS is a process of letting go.
This letting go is an art, it’s gradual, consistent.

I’m feeling it more generally since I also have a graduating senior. But I am also seeing the writing on the wall with my Freshman. After a difficult start to the school year (thank you split feeders) my DD has found a friend group, has a job this summer and is taking Driver’s Ed. So, she too will soon not need me as much any more. I am missing my babies.

Honestly? No.

It's a very different stage that takes some getting used to, but I'm thrilled that my kid has thrived this year.

Anonymous wrote:Yep, that's the way it goes, OP.

This is one of the thousand ways that having children makes people more mature. People without kids see no difference in the 15 years between age 35 and 50.

Funny you say that. I felt something similar when I lived in California. The lack of seasons sort of led to this feeling of endless time. The years moved on without the markers of seasons to note the passage of one year to the next like you have in the northeast or other places.

Kids, like seasons, put the passage of time front and center and make it undeniable.

The days are long and the years are short. That was the truest thing I was ever told about parenting.

Anonymous wrote:The next three years will zoom by, it will go very, very fast. Our youngest is a HS senior, graduating momentarily and off to college soon. My advice? Just enjoy your child's company. Don't focus on the academics at the expense of just enjoying your child's company as a person. It will fly by. Don't be one of those moms with regrets that they spent all their time worrying about the kid's grades and then it was...over. And they feel like they didn't actually spend any time just enjoying life with their kid, because they didn't.

My older child still has a couple of years until HS, but thank you for this advice.

Yep, that's the way it goes, OP.

This is one of the thousand ways that having children makes people more mature. People without kids see no difference in the 15 years between age 35 and 50.

I’ve felt this way at every transition with 3 kids. The sad fact is time will continue to speed up. HS will go quickly and college will zoom by. I have 2 college grads now and I feel like HS was yesterday and even K doesn’t feel that long ago. All you can do is live in the moment and try to make the most of it. My baby graduates HS tomorrow.

Hm-I had this last year because it was a transition year from middle to high school. And I simultaneously had one going from elementary to middle.) This year I’m more focused on summer and vacations so I haven’t felt that wistfulness.

The next three years will zoom by, it will go very, very fast. Our youngest is a HS senior, graduating momentarily and off to college soon. My advice? Just enjoy your child's company. Don't focus on the academics at the expense of just enjoying your child's company as a person. It will fly by. Don't be one of those moms with regrets that they spent all their time worrying about the kid's grades and then it was...over. And they feel like they didn't actually spend any time just enjoying life with their kid, because they didn't.

I am in the same boat as my son finishes his freshman year.

Lately I’ve been hit with this strange mix of nostalgia, pride, and sadness as freshman year comes to a close. I remember feeling something similar at the end of kindergarten—I even posted here back then after crying while washing my child’s little “circle time” blanket for the last time. High school felt impossibly far away then. And now, somehow, it’s already here, and already one year almost gone.

In just three more years, that tiny 5-year-old will be an adult.

How did it all move so quickly? And how did it somehow also feel endless while we were living it? The long days and little routines that felt so ordinary at the time?

I honestly don’t know where the years went. Feeling very emotional and reflective today.