A Poem For Mother’s Day

Forty-two years went by between the birth of our first child and when the last of all five turned 18. That’s a lot of parenting. I suppose, if we had planned that season more compactly, there would be fewer regrets and fewer happy memories. But we weren’t thinking that way. We were thinking about older kids helping younger ones, and how to spread college attendance (and expenses) over 27 years.

What we didn’t foresee — and it wouldn’t have changed anything if we did — is that parenting doesn’t end with the last departure. Or any departure. We are now pushing 70 and have just embarked on the completely new phase of parenting which you might call the AAKAA phase — “After All Kids Are Adults.”

Last year when that phase began, I wrote this poem for a very strong, faithful, long-suffering Mom, my wife. It was good to spend those 42 years doing this together. And it is good to begin our AAKAA phase as deeply committed as ever.

Source: A Long Motherhood | Desiring God