I know that every parent has felt, is feeling or will feel what my wife and I are feeling today.

Our son graduated from 6th grade today. Come late August, he will be in Middle School, or, as it was called when I was a kid, Junior High. We are proud of him, amazed at just how fast Elementary School went by, very happy for him and very sad that our son is no longer a little boy.

Actually, he passed "little boy" by a long time ago on the way by "kid" to arrive at "young man".

I will never again feel the joy in my heart of seeing him run into his school, eager to start the new day. Maybe I'll drop him off at school in the future, but he'll be WAY too cool to run in unless he's late. My wife and I said goodbye to the goodbye kiss at school over a year ago. The exchange is that we're going to damn well kiss him when we're at home

When he was about 4 months old, a few weeks after we adopted him, I had a dream of something taking place when he 'll be about 17. In this dream, he's going out on a date and I'm at the door with him while mom is close by in the living room. I'm asking if he has enough money and he says yes but I give him another $20 just in case. I then ask if he has enough gas and he says yes but I give him another $10 just in case.

3 things that I know. First is that, unlike August of 2000 when I had this dream, $10 for gas will go nowhere 5 years from now. The second thing is that the $20 won't go a hell of a long way then either.

The third thing that I know is that his being 17 is just around the corner and will be here in NO time.

it has nothing to do with getting older. It has nothing to do with my wife getting older because she'll still be the most beautiful and wonderful woman on the face of the Earth when she's 199. It has to do with the fact that we LOVE being parents, even when we want to absolutely throttle him (which is frequently). In just a few years, he's going to be out, in college and GONE!

He'll be home for holidays, weekend visits, laundry, refrigerator raiding and hitting mom & dad up for money that we'll bitch about giving him while we're silently happy to do it. He'll always be our son, we'll always be family, but before long, he'll have a family of his own.

Of course, THAT'S when the fun will come in!

My mother-in-law lets him get away with a lot. My mother (God rest her soul & RIP) let him get away with absolute murder! We've always told him that we'll get our revenge when he has OUR grandchildren!

At least we have that to look forward to!

That's my 2 cents, and quite possibly overpriced at that!

PEACE!