Mom of Men by Sharon O’Donnell

photo of my ‘boys’ in 2015

When my oldest son moved into his first ‘real’ apartment two months ago, I wondered how long it would take before he started calling there ‘home’ instead of the house he grew up in and lived in for most of his 24 years.  I have to admit that I cringed when I heard it slip out over Thanksgiving for the first time. Up until then, he was still calling our house ‘home’, but my husband and I overheard him telling a relative that he was going to watch the Panthers football game that afternoon. “Where are you going to watch it?” the relative asked. Our son paused and he nodded his head toward my husband and me, as he replied, “Over at their house.”   THEIR house???  My husband was quick to respond, “You mean OUR house.”  But the damage was done.  The transition had been made — the time had arrived.

I’m pleased that our son is obviously enjoying living in his new single apartment complete with the independence that comes with it, but we do miss him. Same goes for our senior in college who also has another “home” away from our house — although it is an old house shared with 5 other guys and still is more of a college dorm than independent living. However, the time spent in our home is dwindling for him, too.

Our youngest, a freshman in high school, is still at home with us, thank goodness, and even though I have to put up with the teenage eye rolls and exasperated sighs — I know this is the time I must savor. A mom of boys very suddenly — almost overnight it seems — becomes a mom of men. And she misses those boys.

All three boys, my husband, and I went to see a movie over the Thanksgiving weekend; it was the new Rocky movie, Creed.  But I really didn’t care what movie we saw; the point was that we were together.  All of us. Just like it used to be.  And for that I gave thanks.  Later, my oldest said, “I’d better get back to my place.”  What he doesn’t know, is that — to me — he never totally leaves this place, this home, where I have so  many memories of him growing up.  I hope he always feels that in some way our home is always his home.

Tags: growing up, home, new apartment