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Don't obsess so much, parents: Your kids won't remember you

A few days ago, my son made friends with a group of older boys at the beach and told my husband to vamoose, saying, “You can stand over there near my mom.” This was a first. My son is not a kid who likes to be without one of us for even five minutes. He ensures that we’ll be glued to his side by doing things like “cleaning up” by dumping a glass of water into the DVR player while I’m m
Blissful childhood memories... and mom is out of the picture.
Blissful childhood memories... and mom is out of the picture.Today

A few days ago, my son made friends with a group of older boys at the beach and told my husband to vamoose, saying, “You can stand over there near my mom.” This was a first. My son is not a kid who likes to be without one of us for even five minutes. He ensures that we’ll be glued to his side by doing things like “cleaning up” by dumping a glass of water into the DVR player while I’m making dinner. So it seems like a huge step that he wanted to fly solo with his new friends.

Of course, we were by the water so we were only about 10 feet away, but it was still kind of amazing to watch the boys show him how to dig for sand crabs. You should have seen his delight when they dumped a few of the hapless creatures into his outstretched hands. I didn’t even know we had sand crabs in Malibu. I’ve only ever seen them at the Jersey Shore, where I spent summers as a kid.

What struck me was that many of my dearest memories of growing up don’t involve my parents. All of my most secret and treasured discoveries happened by myself or with friends. What I most remember about the shore was being part of a wild wolf pack of kids, running over the burning hot sand, holding crumpled dollar bills for Creamsicles from the ice cream truck. I remember the orange-stained tongues, the sand-scrubbed sunburns from burying each other up to our necks. I remember I first held a boy’s hand at the amusement park there. I know that my parents were nearby, because I was nine, but I have no memory of that. Just the whirling lights, the smell of the sea air, the tentative press of palm to palm.

I wonder what my son will remember. I spend my days so obsessed with his every move that I often forget- if he somehow remarkably remembers those sand crabs, I won’t be in the picture at all. I find it liberating to think that his interior world is entirely his own. One day he’ll discover a band that blows his mind. One day someone will break his heart. These will be the moments that grow to define him, and in his memories of them, his mom will be rightfully absent.

I try to remember that I’m just here to love him like crazy and figure out how to stand far enough away to pretend I’m invisible, but close enough to protect him when the water gets too rough. 

Jillian Lauren is the  is the author of the memoir Some Girls: My Life in a Harem and the novel Pretty. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review Daily, The New York Times, Los Angeles Magazine and Vanity Fair. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, musician Scott Shriner, and their son. She blogs about motherhood, adoption, writing and being a rock wife at http://www.jillianlauren.com/blog/

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