Father's Day

The kids: Max, Sloan, Caleb during Sloan's college graduation weekend.

Each Father's Day I like to give a little tribute to my husband, Tom.
This year marks 32 years spent as a father  and  2-1/2 years as a grandfather.

We're at an odd time in our lives now when all the kids are adults and we're standing on the sidelines watching them making their life decisions.

Some of those decisions are NOT the ones we would make. And sometimes I find myself telling Tom, "it's not our business."

But he finds it nearly impossible to really let them go. I think he will always feel the need to throw a protective umbrella over them. Perhaps that stems from the fact that his own father died young when Tom was only a teenager.

Tom has hung in there a lot longer. He has shepherded his children to adulthood and now, like it or not, we stand in the dust as they head off into pastures of their own making.

This afternoon we babysat for our little pre-school grandson. Before he could come over, Tom had to buy some special toys, a DVD and some candy. I try to warn Tom that we can't spoil him and we have to back off a little - but the truth is that neither one of us really feels that way. It's a different role for him - the grandparent instead of the parent - but he enjoys it and, characteristically, he's doing a good job with it.

Happy Father's Day, Tom. And many more!