Today I had to have a difficult conversation with my daughters.  It was made harder because we live apart, they in the UK me here in the US.

So over the phone I had to break the news that I had received only a few hours earlier, that their Grandmother, my Mother had passed away.

My daughters are older – one is 20, the other just turned 18 two weeks ago.  This type of conversation is hard at any age face to face, the awkwardness of it over the phone made it seem even harder.

Having broken the news to them, I was of course, concerned about them.  Were they upset, how would they take the news.

What I found instead was that their concern was how was I? I was confused, I’m the parent, I’m the one that is supposed to be the strong one, the one that shoulders their concerns.

Their concern for me reminded me that I too was someone’s child. That parenting isn’t a function of age and that your children can teach you about being a parent as much as you can teach them about being an adult, if you are prepared to be open to learning that.

So I go forward into the New Year as an orphan, but instead of feeling only a sense of loss, I feel I have gained a knew insight, that my daughters have grown into wonderfully compassionate strong women – just like their Grandmother was and that as long as I remain open they, like her, have much to teach me.

What will you learn from the difficult conversations you have with your Children?

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