Passing The Torch ~Author unknown~ so far.

Is there a magic cutoff period when offspring become accountable for their own actions?

Is there a wonderful moment when parents can become detached spectators in the lives of their children and shrug, 'It's their life," and feel nothing?

When I was in my twenties, I stood in a hospital corridor waiting for doctors to put a few stitches in my son's head. I asked, "when do you stop worrying?" The nurse said, "When they get out of the accident stage." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

When I was in my thirties, I sat on a little chair in a classroom and heard how one of my children talked incessantly, disrupted the class, and was headed for a career making license plates. As if to read my mind, a teacher said, "Don't worry, they all go through this stage and then you can sit back, relax and enjoy them." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

When I was in my forties, I spent a lifetime waiting for the phone to ring, the cars to come home, the front door to open. A friend said, "They're trying to find themselves. Don't worry, in a few years, you can stop worrying. They'll be adults." My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing.

By the time I was 50, I was sick and tired of being vulnerable. I was still worrying over my children, but there was a new wrinkle. There was nothing I could do about it. My mother just smiled faintly and said nothing. I continued to anguish over their failures, be tormented by their frustrations and absorbed in their disappointments.

My friends said that when my kids got married - I could stop worrying and lead my own life. I wanted to believe that, but I was haunted by my mother's warm smile and her occasional, "You look pale. Are you all right" Call me the minute you get home. Are you depressed about something?"

Can it be that parents are sentenced to a lifetime of worry? Is concern for one another haded down like a torch to blaze the trail of human frailties and the fears of the unknown? Is concern a curse or is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?

One of my children became quite irritable recently, saying to me, "Where were you? I've been calling for 3 days, and no one answered, I was worried." I smiled a warm smile.

The torch has been passed.

Ice Cream, by any other name?

As I quite often do, on returning home from the post office, I stopped at the grocery store for a few things. I was waiting in line at the check-out, when I felt a tug on my skirt and a small voice "Lady, what's that you have?"

Turning around, I saw a small boy standing with his dad. I looked at my purchases and told him; "Ice Cream". 'Uh-ah', he said 'that doesn't look like ice cream!'.

Yes, it's Rollo-twist and Tin-roof-Sundae ice cream, I said.

He turned to his dad, and asked if they could get some too! His dad said that they already had ice cream at home.

"Nope, we don't, vanilla isn't ice cream!" he said.

So, to a child ice cream is fanciful flavours, not plain old vanilla.

Like life, if we don't give children variety, their out look on the world will be just plain old vanilla!