When a dream and reality collide….

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Life is full of big decisions.  Especially when you have children. What school do I put them in?  Which doctor should I choose?  Should I put them in extra activities such as sports or music even if they really aren’t a fan? Do they really need that new video game?  How much life insurance do I need? What is the best decision to make to protect them?  Every decision that I made during those formative years was a tough one, and while I don’t think I did a horrible job, there are some things that I really wouldn’t mind a “do over” on.

This photo is probably 20 years old.  The girls loved making cookies especially at Christmas.  That was the fun of having girls; dressing them up for holidays and special events.  This was the days of big hair, and small paychecks.  I scrimped and saved and worked two jobs to support my girls.  Money was very tight.

But I made sure that they had everything they needed.  The girls never knew that money was short.  They knew that they were safe, secure, and that they were very protected.

Since my girls have grown up and moved out, the house has become a lot quieter.  Sometimes that is a good thing, as now my husband and I can relax in an un-drama-fied environment.  If you are familiar with raising girls, then I’m sure you are familiar with the drama.  Every day was a new episode in their own personal reality show.  While my life is a sitcom, theirs were more of a daytime soap opera with lots of angst, a bit of dramatic story line and many episodes of just plain old teenage turmoil.  My little sitcom pales in comparison to their daily theatrical melodrama.

And yes, they did grow up to be beautiful, happy individuals.  Do we miss them?  Absolutely!  The drama?  No way.

Now we are free to do what we want, when we want.  My schedule revolves around my schedule and nobody else’s.  If we wanted to run around the house naked, we could certainly do it!

…Well, actually, I don’t really want to frighten the dogs.  They are a bit high strung already.  But the point is, if we wanted to, we certainly could!

A few months ago, I announced that my husband and I will be selling everything, moving into our RV and traveling the country.  This plan was five years in the making.  You can read about it here.  So, it shouldn’t have been a surprise to the girls when we told them the house is now on the market and we are getting ready to go.  But I think both girls thought we were just having big dreams.

Drama ensued.

What would they do if they needed us for something?  Who could they depend on for help?  What if their car broke down.  What if they had a bad day and just needed someone to talk to?

Yep, maybe I protected them a bit too much.  Remember the do-over thing?

Atlanta has been our home for most of the girl’s lives.  The oldest now lives in Oklahoma, but our youngest still lives in the Atlanta area.  While we love to be around family, we feel that we need to move on with our lives and separate ourselves from the corporate atmosphere, the daily commute, the crowds, and stress associated with living in and near a big city.  It is our dream to travel.

We are looking forward to living in the moment.  We want to see the country first hand and enjoy traveling while we are still healthy enough to do so.  This crowd of geese is the closest I want to come to a traffic jam in the near future.

But how do we make our girls feel protected and secure from a distance?

Fortunately with the ease of the internet and phone service, we can easily face-time them anytime they would like. Daily contact is now possible in this big world, made very simple with the internet.  I am grateful for that.   And there is the website thing.  I’ve started a new website called The Traveling Sitcom, where they can easily follow our journeys.  We would never be more than a phone call away.

Ultimately, the girls are at the point where they need to establish their own lifestyles.  And they are doing that.  But I think that with mom and dad roaming around the country, they are forced to start being more self sufficient.  And that is a good thing.  While the mom in me wants to always protect them just as I did when they were children, I know that they need to learn to take good care of themselves.  After all, it will probably not be long before both of them have children of their own to protect.

With that in mind, I did a bit of research to find information that they can use to help make their own important decisions.  The internet is wonderful isn’t it?  My girls need to learn more about disaster preparedness, more about health insurance, more about how to protect themselves and their assets.  The Protective Learning Center is a great place for them to begin gathering the information that they need in order to be ready for important decisions and become the self sufficient confident adults that I know they are.  And it gives us a little peace of mind so that we can enjoy our new life on the road.

Do you struggle with allowing your children to be more self sufficient?  Are your kids too dependent?  How are you handling it?