Familial Evolution

It's always startling to realize you have begun relating to your parents as adults, rather than as "your parents." This is certainly not the first time I've had that experience, but with my mother visiting for a few days over the weekend, it struck me again. She was expressing some frustration with certain facets of her life, and acknowledging that she was being a bit of ostrich, and the husband and I were asking what we hoped were helpful, insightful questions, and expressing opinions, and at some point I thought, "Damn, this is the woman who once taught me how to tie my shoes." And it was a little surreal.

And then we left the restaurant and discovered a Jim-Beam-sponsored-race-car-simulator outside, and she got totally excited and all semblance of seriousness was gone. Thank heavens, because it got a little heavy there for a while.

Mom loves to visit us in Chicago and, as with all other visitors, we love showing her the city. Her visit provided an excuse to check out the gardens at Millennium Park for the first time in a couple of years, as well as going on a garden walk in our neighborhood (she's a big gardener, clearly). Other than that, though, everything we did with her were things that we likely would have done on our own: checking out the DaVinci exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, going to the Ditty Bops concert (which, by the way, was AMAZING, and if they are coming to your city, you must run out and get tickets right away), heading out to some wonderful restaurants for dinner, brunch, lunch....

And she was so excited about all of it - she divides her time between Maine and Tucson, and certainly has cultural and educational opportunities available to her, but it's clear that coming here strikes her as coming to the big city. And that she relies on us to help her navigate, both literally and figuratively. And that that navigational assistance is only going to increase as the years go on - again, both literally and figuratively. I guess we're all constantly learning how to deal with family, and I certainly wouldn't want these relationships to remain static, but it does provide some interesting food for thought....