Outside, looking. In

No you can't win Bradford Lass. We try to give them confidence, to be honest and work hard and attain their goals, then they do and fly off. No good them seeing you when it's a chore, I do have a busy life and try to try and do new things.

I'm sorry you're feeling sad. Have you told the family how you feel?

Some wise person once told me that children are on elastic when they are born.
The elastic keeps them close to you but as they grow and pull on it, it gets slacker and slacker until eventually, it no longer pulls them back to you.

I've read so many stories like yours on GN and it's sad but it seems to be what families do.
And didn't we bring them up to be independent and look after themselves?

Then there's the other side - grans who feel they are used by their families as unpaid babysitters.

We can't win eh?

I understand - It's an odd phenomenon that sometimes seems to happen for no specific reason and/ or progresses so slowly one doesn't take notice until one feels the distance, as if on the outside looking in -

Families go through phases, I think - Families that I knew at one time to be close over the years drifted apart - As an observer, I'd consider myself on the outside of families other than my own ..

Toss a pebble into water, it creates rings that increasingly drift further from the center - People do the same - My grandparents were the center, then my parents the next ring, then me and my siblings - By the time our kids were big, the distance between us had already increased by leaps and bounds - Quite a departure from being one on top of another, as a growing family, in my grandparents tiny flat ..

cosmossorry you're feeling this way