Allowing the Child to Fly Solo, on Parent-Child Interactions

We have here, a “case” of the empty nest, translated…

Awhile ago, I’d gathered with a couple of my long-time-no-see former classmates at Ling’s house.

The moment we walked into her door, we all saw Ling, with a huge frown on her face, sitting on the couch in the living room.

Shuan-Shuan who’s the most caring of us all asked, “What’s wrong?”.  First, Ling let out a very long sigh, then started telling us the story: “my daughter Hsiao-Wei is in her last semester of high school, I wanted her to finish her college education as we’d planned out, but, she’d told me she wanted to fly solo abroad, to fulfill herself.  And, my husband had agreed, what the!  Going abroad, all by herself?  What if she gets cheated?”

We’d listened in silence, as she ranted, Ling’s daughter had been the top of her class since she was in the younger years, not only did she graduate, top of her class, she’s a standardized good child, respectful toward the elders, and now, she’d all of a sudden, made this decision, it would surely, be hard to handle for Ling that’s for certain.  But, how come her husband could let go?  Because her daughter is fluent in many languages, and she’s old enough.  Didn’t someone say, that after you’d gone abroad then come back, you would be more certain of your path in life?  A studious and hard working young woman like her daughter, she would surely find a school that will accept her, why must she worry!

Actually, if you have the chance, you should allow your kids to fly solo, to get the life experiences, they should not be incarcerated inside a cage at all, instead, they should be allowed, to fly out, to see how blue the skies are out there, how tall the trees.

Hope, that Ling can finally think it through, and have a conversation with her daughter, so her daughter can live out her dreams of studying abroad.

So we still have here, a mother who was unwilling to let go, and, it’s probably due to empty nest, because her child is becoming an adult now, and, the mother just isn’t quite willing to let her go yet, but, the mother will have to, because like it or don’t, the child WILL fly out.