Where does the time go?

[Bob Marino]

Today, my daughter starts her first paying job in NYC. Hold on, it's just for the summer until she goes back to college in August. Yes, August - it seems they start the first semesters earlier these years. It seems like just a week ago she had her senior prom, graduated high school and only yesterday she had her first day at college.

About a dozen or so years ago, I was a member of the Lehigh Valley Woodworkers Guild. I remember speaking with one of the members - Art Silva who said to spend as much time with your daughter now because later on, as she becomes a teenager, she will be be spending time with friends, not family, more so the older she gets. How true. And how quickly that time goes by. If there were only a way to turn back those hands of time. I think all mothers know this intuitively and fathers with teenagers have already experienced this. This is as much a reflection on the obvious as it is a word of advice to all the new and one day to be, new dads.

Hug em now, treasure the time together.
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[tjbnwi]

I'm sitting in or 40 year old daughters family room---How can that be? Is our youngest really 30? Our son 35? Where did the time go? Am I really that old?

Ultimately there is a great benefit to all of this.

Our daughter blessed us with "My girls"--View attachment 1View attachment 3

Our son gave us "My buddy"---View attachment 2

Time marches on........

Tom

 

[sancho57]

My baby graduates High School Tonight, and I retire in Sept....

It really does fly by, enjoy your kids and family while ya can, they grow up and are gone before ya know it.....

 

[Mort]

My daughter will be 9 in a few weeks, that even seems impossible.

 

[nclemmons]

Bos - is this the daughter that made the guitar?! 

 

[Tinker]

Our daughter turned 50 last November. Son turned 49 just last Friday. Both are successful in their chosen fields and enjoying their work and their lives. Our grandson is graduating HS next week.  Daughter and son are both older than my wife and me (I'm only 39 ya know). We are blessed.
Tinker

 

[Bob Marino]

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Bos - is this the daughter that made the guitar?!

Sorry for the delay, Neil. Yes, that's her.

 

[Bob Marino]

  In my town of Glen Ridge, much is made of the senior "graduation night" - one family - with the help of other parents holds the event starting about 10pm until dawn. It's literally like a tiny amusement park and more. Anyhow, my daughter and I passed by quicky in my car before heading home and it's a whole year since  she had hers.
On of my daughter's classmate's father and I were speaking last year at that time and he mentioned that his younger brother became a father a couple of months prior. He said he gave this brother this advice - and it really sums it  up - "don't blink."

 

[Tinker]

  In my town of Glen Ridge, much is made of the senior "graduation night" - one family - with the help of other parents holds the event starting about 10pm until dawn. It's literally like a tiny amusement park and more. Anyhow, my daughter and I passed by quicky in my car before heading home and it's a whole year since  she had hers.
On of my daughter's classmate's father and I were speaking last year at that time and he mentioned that his younger brother became a father a couple of months prior. He said he gave this brother this advice - and it really sums it  up - "don't blink."

I got a chuckle out of that.  So true.

 

[waterloomarc]

Very true. Everyone tells you how fast it will go and even with the very best of efforts to remain cognizant of that advice it still slips away from you. I am still in the middle of the early fatherhood years, my little girl just turned 4 last month, but it still amazes me how fast it has gone. I try to remind myself to embrace all those nights when all she wants to, sometimes literally, be attached to my hip and not lose patience because I can't get anything done. There will be a time not long from now when I will wish she were around to ask me if she can paint every small object she finds in my shop, or ask me for juice immediately after I sit down. It really goes fast and I imagine it will get worse once school schedules start.

I recently switched jobs and have to leave earlier now. We used to sit on the couch every morning and watch the today show together. I miss that way more than I'd ever admit to non-strangers on the internet!

 

[Neal W]

Just mentioning on another non woodworking forum, that I'm about to be an empty nester.  My youngest begins his freshman year in mid-August.  18 years has flown by like the blink of an eye.  His sister is a senior in college (has two years to go to complete her education).  It's crazy. 

 

[Bob Marino]

Where did that year go? Today we are driving my daughter back to college for her sophomore year. Seems like only a month ago we were dropping her off for her freshman year and a week ago we were picking her up for return to home. Where does that time go?