My youngest Remi, turned 18 today!

View this post on Instagram

Which means something quite strange has happened in my life, I now have two adult children!

I’ve been a mum since I was 18 myself, so this moment feels oddly full circle. Half my life, actually more than half now has been spent raising these two humans.

School runs, packed lunches, the teenage moods, late night chats, worrying, laughing, trying to get it right… and sometimes just absolutely winging it.

People make a big deal about 18, like parenting suddenly stops there. Of course it doesn’t. Anyone who’s a parent knows that’s not how it works. You don’t clock off. You don’t stop caring. You don’t stop showing up.

But there is a shift.

Not a dramatic one. More like a quiet realisation that you don’t get the final say anymore. They step into their own lives now and you have no choice but to loosen your grip a bit. You move from being the one steering the ship to standing on the shore hoping what you taught them about the sea sticks.

And hoping that the things you tried to instil, kindness, resilience, common sense, knowing their own mind will carry them through.

Will they mess up? Of course they will.

We don’t raise perfect humans.
We raise real people.

And real people make mistakes, take wrong turns, learn things the hard way sometimes. That’s part of becoming who you’re meant to be.

So now here I am. Two adult children.

It’s a strange feeling. A proud one. A reflective one. A bit emotional if I’m honest.

And it also leaves me with another question quietly sitting in the background ‘What does this mean for me now?‘

For the first time in decades, the role that shaped my entire adult life is changing shape. I’m going to take a bit of time to sit with that and figure out what the next chapter looks like.

But for now, I’m mostly just grateful.

Grateful for the chaos, the life lessons, the laughter, the growth, theirs and mine.

And I am so very proud of the two adults they’ve become.

in