I love you Mom, and I miss you. Everything I write is a tribute to you. You believed in me long before even I did. Thank you for that.
Children don't come with owner's manuals. We all do the best we can, changing what we didn't like about our own parents' style, doing what we enjoyed having them do. But a parents' job is one of planned obsolescence. If you do your job well, they won't need you for very long. Love you, hopefully, visit once-in-a-while, but not need.
You protect them and encourage them to become what the potential inside of them wants them to become, and hope it brings them some of the joy you feel in watching them grow.
But, "A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys." They are often amused, my 4 young adults, when Dad and I remind them of the things we enjoyed doing with them when they were our children. They don't always remember...he tells them they will when they have their own kids...as he did.
But sometimes, when I sit talking to them, inestimably proud of how erudite and well-spoken they are, how passionate and intelligent, I think to myself, "You are all wonderful people, but tell me, where are my babies?"