Okay, I should have known this. It’s only rational when you really think about. My dad even told me about this. I guess I wasn’t ready to hear it.

“Once you become a parent, your job never ends. Never.”

Somewhere in my head, I this idea that you were a parent for 20 years until they became an adult. Your primary job was to raise them well enough they could stand alone on their own two feet. I was wrong.

A friend of mine said the other day, “You will spend twice as much time parenting adult children as you did parenting your young children.” Holy smokes Batman! It’s true. You parent them as ‘young children’ from birth to about age 20. You parent them as ‘adult children’ until you die. Until you die. They are going to ask for help when they are 30, 40, 50 and maybe even 60 if you live that long.

You can’t run away from this. It’s your job. The parenting changes dramatically. In many ways easier. In some ways, much harder.

What’s going to make this Sisyphean task a little easier it to get some help. If you can bestow your best wisdom and the wisdom of your parents and their parents. It’s going to this endless task just a little bit better.

Write a letter to your grandchildren.