DEAR BP,
I had to write you to get some advice on my situation. For 20 years now I have carried my two wonderful kids through their educational journey.
Both have completed degrees and are now looking for jobs. I am tired – extremely tired now. Both kids are now moving into their own lives and it appears as if I am not ready to accept their decisions or directions.
So many changes have gone on in my own life. I have had a divorce. Lost my home. Lost my job, yet all I have are these two children and I don’t know if I can let them go. I want them have good jobs, not ones that could lead them along some wrong path to financial ruin.
PLEASE HELP!
Signed, Cannot let it go!
BP RESPONSE: Boy I tell ya – the story of a true Bahamian woman. A real mother – maternal – as one professor would tell me.
Well, you know, “Cannot Let It GO” I believe your life lessons have channeled you to expect and accept that life is filled with many bumps, twists and turns, many corners and dead alleyways and abrupt stops. And I assure you that in life even the good things must come to an end.
Fortunately for you, from what you have shared so far, you have certainly seen much of life already, and I suspect the greater journey of your life’s chapter is just ahead.
Listen, the time has come for the birds to fly out of the nest. And this is not the time for you to hold back the tide. In this next phase of motherhood – it is time for you to see whether your
grooming, nurturing, love and upbringing will add to or deplete the earth. You will be there to coach still. You will be there to instruct, and your own examples will be prescription of counseling
for the younger ones who you will have the pleasure of your wisdom along the way…
As long as it is nothing illegal – why be concerned? And why just believe that a job is something so secure for them? Why not support them in that business startup risk [If this is what you are afraid
of], which could produce for them the next great idea the world has been waiting for?
So let them fly. Let them fall. Let the kids learn; for this is what life is all about – and your experiences will be there. This is what they will need to guide them along the way.
Tell you of a story of a woman who had plenty kids and lost her husband when she needed him most. And with no support or assistance she did what she knew best [started baking cakes]. Today she is one of the world’s greatest bakers – Sara Lee.
BP says let them be them and you – you…
BP…
