When I was younger, I thought when I was an adult I wouldn’t need my parents very much.
Not that I wouldn’t be close to them still, but I believed that grown up kids kind of just outgrew needing their parents.
But here I am...
A grown woman, a wife, a mother, a professional.
And I still go to my parents.
I go to them with questions. There is so much I still don’t understand.
I go to them for advice. They have so much wisdom.
But honestly, I go to them because they are still my safe place.
They’re a place where I’ve always been able to go and just be me.
They’ve never asked me to be someone else.
It’s the place that all throughout my life I could run to. Through fall-outs with friends, breakups, big mistakes and regrets..
Through the good, the bad, and the celebrations.. they’ve been a consistent source of safety and comfort.
Sometimes as a woman, I still need a place to go that makes me feel like I did as a kid.
A place where I know two people always have my best interest in mind.
A place where their hug isn’t just a hug, but a feeling of breaking down the walls I’ve put up.
It feels like “home”.
The child and parent relationship changes throughout time, no doubt.
But the safe feeling of good parents will forever be one of my most comforting places on earth.
What a gift to be raised by people who, even as an adult, I still run to.
I still want to be around.
I still feel so safe with.
Now, I pray my kids will feel the same.
I pray when they are grown they will feel the same security in me and their dad as I felt with my parents.
I pray that we will both launch them into the world to be independent, but always be a home base for them to go to...
Just because they can.
Just because we are a safe place to run.
~Kelli Bachara, The Unraveling Blog