Totally Quotable Clementine: reluctantly growing up edition

She said this to me about a week ago. I can’t remember what we’d been talking about, but I was sitting at the kitchen table, and she was standing next to me. When she said it, I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote it down. I told her that I thought the phrase was incredibly beautiful. I didn’t mention it to her, but I also found it to be totally heartbreaking. I know that I’m supposed to want for her to grow up, and have her own life, but I’m finding it incredibly difficult to accept the fact that she’ll be leaving home one day, and experiencing life apart from us… I can’t believe that I’m already thinking about her leaving home, and worrying about how it will affect me, but I am… But, apparently she’s feeling it too. She’s not, after all, sprinting toward adulthood. She’s tiptoeing.

The drawing, by the way, is of an owl. I’m not sure why it’s carrying a basket, or why its wings are on backwards. I didn’t ask.

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11 Comments

  1. grandma
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 4:55 am | Permalink

    YEAH!!! I just hope it continues. Baby steps! Baby steps!

  2. maryd
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 5:13 am | Permalink

    Nothing has been more fulfilling to me than watching my children grow up and become adults. Don’t blink Mark…it goes way too fast. But I do love my adult children they are the greatest to be with! Then there is being a grandparent, makes being a parent all the more worth it.

  3. Edward
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 6:35 am | Permalink

    Speaking of owls, there was something in the news a few days ago about the Harry Potter inspired trend to have them as pets. It would appear that 100s of them have now been abandoned.

  4. Jules
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 6:49 am | Permalink

    What MaryD said.

  5. freeto
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 7:32 am | Permalink

    Very astute, that she knows not to run. Beautiful sentiment when combined with the flying Owl.

  6. John Galt
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 8:37 am | Permalink

    Allowing children to sleep with blankets makes them weak. And encouraging them to explore the arts makes them gay. If I were you, I’d confiscate her blanket, and break all of her pencils. That’s what a good father would do.

  7. anonymous
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 8:50 am | Permalink

    I’m hurtling toward death.

  8. Mr. Y
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 2:40 pm | Permalink

    Her drawing kind of reminds me of that mechanical owl from Clash of the Titans. It’s weird the stuff that just kind of pops into your head. I haven’t seen that movie in close to 30 years.

    http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/3359001615_c6a7dc7b4c_o.jpg

  9. Ol' Timer
    Posted May 22, 2012 at 6:47 pm | Permalink

    I’m stumbling toward senility.

  10. Posted May 22, 2012 at 9:48 pm | Permalink

    That looks like Mothman. It also looks like you drew it.

  11. Posted June 2, 2012 at 12:46 pm | Permalink

    I never heard Keel mention a basket, Doug… Did he tell you what was in it?

    Also, sadly, I learned today that Clementine had plagiarized the phrase. It comes from The Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler.

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