I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown.

I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown. slow down.

Just as friends arrived to dine with me and my wife, my teenage son left the house with several buddies.

I joked he should return before the sun went down,

which was in 10 minutes.

They were off to play video games at a neighbor's house.

He must like you.

He brings his friends around, said our dinner guests.

Our daughter wouldn't be caught within a foot of us.

We embarrass her.

I felt for them.

I was proud of my connection with my kids. We went through it together. So it was natural

that I would offer to help my son move out of his dorm at the end of his first year in college.

I'm not coming home for the summer, he said.

He'd made plans to room with his friends in a downtown apartment.

Wow, that's done.

His independent decision brought me to a standstill.

I didn't think I would suffer the beginnings of empty nesting.

Today's poem beautifully captures those complex emotions of watching our children emerge into

themselves and this threat to our identity.

The Mothers by Jill Bylowski.

We love them.

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