The Blog with the Independence

Something very odd happened today. Something very odd indeed. Something that as a mother I have asked for over and over and over again in the space of boy child's almost 15 years existance.

"When are you going to GROW UP?"

Today I realised he has. He can forage in the kitchen now and usually find something edible if I am not around. He has worked out how to get the most wear out of undergarments by turning them inside out and back to front. He notices when there is no toilet paper left or the shampoo has run out (I say "notice" because in my experience men dont translate the "notice" bit to the "do something about it" bit until they hit the age of around...... um...... dead). He has a better social life than I do.

All this of course adds up to the fact that the role I have played for the last 15 years has become redundant. I am no longer needed (except being provider of cash of course). He no longer wants me to kiss his skinned knee, or hold him in the middle of the night after a nightmare or rub his back to sleep. I am apparently no longer responsible for his school holiday/weekend activities, to a certain extent he comes and goes from my life like a spring breeze.

Am I sad? Am I sitting here melancholy and wiping away tears that a chapter in my life is closing?

Not on your BLOODY LIFE!!

WOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO - I go out for dinner with my girls - I go to the movies - I am kicking up my heels and doing the party dance like I have never done the party dance before! Without so much as a "mmmm need to organise a babysitter" thought in my head I am making plans left right and centre. After 15 goddamn years of getting up in the middle of the night to assure boy child that no monster is under his bed I sleep ALL night!

So it was dinner out last night - movies tonight to see Sex and the City.

Why then do I feel a little part of me has left?