I know it's a dark time. So shine your light on your people. And if you have the energy,

shine your light on every person you can. Be as they say, the change you want to see in the world.

Hello and welcome to the Politics Girl podcast. I'm your host Lee McGowan. Let's get into it.

I am in New York, where my family has spent the past three years for the holiday. I do some work.

My boys meet me here. We spend some time together as a family. And then we go out to our friends' house on Long Island to be with the family that we chose for ourselves. It's a wonderful tradition, and I love doing it, even if I never quite stop working. It's a little bit different this year because my son is spending the first half of the holiday with his girlfriend instead of with us, because they do long distance, and any chance they have to be together, it has to be done. But since he is a senior in

high school this year, it is the beginning of a new era where the child just isn't with us. In fact,

he'll be with us less and less moving forward. And I'm starting to realize that and I'm having

some feelings about that. Lockland is our only child. And if you can only have one, which is what happened to me,

because I got sick after he was born, he's the one to have.

I know all people think their child is special, but our boy impresses us every day.

He adds to the world he inhabits.

He is a new breed of man, one who sees women as his equal and calls himself a feminist without irony. He is a gentleman

like his dad and driven like his mom, and I'm going to miss him so much when he goes away to college.

Being a parent is fascinating. For 18 years, this child is everything. You build your life, you build

your schedule, you build your days around them, what they need,

what they're doing, who their friends are, what they're interested in. And then it's just over.

And they go off and you stay behind. And it's what's supposed to happen. If you raise them right and you get lucky, it's what should happen. But I've only ever been on the leaving side of the parent-child thing, the moving away

and the starting my real life side. Now I'm on the left behind side and we'll miss you side.

The call us when you can side. And as we finish up with his college apps and we realize all

the cramming life skills that we need to jam into

the next eight months, it's all coming up really fast. There was a framed picture in my room

growing up. My mom put it there. And it said there are two lasting gifts we can give our children.

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