This week my husband and I are moving our daughter into a college dorm room three thousand miles away from our home. As my older and wiser mom friends tried to help prepare me for this week, I noticed a lot of them told me the same thing. “Give yourself permission to cry.”
At first, I was a little puzzled by the repeated advice. Surely, I would cry if I felt the need to do so. I had heard many tales of moms crying as they pulled away from campus and was prepared to follow their well worn path. Then I realized something. Moms do often deny themselves the privilege of crying.
For some moms, crying stopped in their younger years. For whatever reason, at some point they had to step in an adult role as a child and often didn’t allow themselves the luxury of crying. Other moms stop crying when they realize it scares their own young children. Oh, they may promise themselves a good cry in the shower or in bed after everyone is asleep, but then reality hits.