Letting go

Today I watched my younger daughter walk out the door with a boy for her first date.  It took everything I had not to grab her arm and pull her back.  To hold her in my arms and shout at the kid to go away.  To tell him that she is my baby.  That she is too young for this nonsense.  That he has no right.  But instead I smiled, greeted him, kissed her, and let her go.

She told me about him a month ago.  We talked about the feelings you get inside when you see that certain someone.  I think a part of me felt it wouldn't go farther.  But it did.  First it was a group get together.  Then it was meeting at a school event.  Then it went to "dating" as my daughter called i,t which meant he asked her to be his girlfriend and she said yes.  Then came the hand holding.  Then he began to come to her sporting events to cheer her on, and we met him and then his parents.  It was inevitable that the date would come next.

I originally told her no dating her freshman year.  As if I could hold her back and stop the rite of passage. Silly me.  I gave in after meeting him.  He is kind and can hold a conversation with an adult, with me. Without cracking, although I was on my best behavior.  Plus, are you ready for his?  His parents are from the same area of Indiana that I am from.  I mean the guy has got to be okay, right?

Darcy has done well this year in school.  She has stayed focused, done well in a program that we originally thought might not be a fit for her, and has gotten great grades.  She has shown us that she is mature.  We trust her.  So I said yes.  Her father, he said yes right away.  I was the hold out.  She is my baby.  The little girl with the pacifier and the thumb in her mouth that cuddled with me every chance she got.  But being a parent is also letting them sprout wings to move away from the cuddling, to branch out into the world.  And so I said yes, and waved as they walked together toward his parents in the van, away from me.