The sadness of goodbyes

I started feeling sad about leaving about a week before we had to leave Australia, but I forced the emotion out of my mind. I was grieving for the upcoming loss, but failed to recognize the signs and put the emotions on hold. Because, there were still lots of fun things to do and time to enjoy my daughter, and my grandson. However, because all of us were in pain about saying goodbye and I refused to acknowledge and deal with the raw emotions that goodbyes can bring, the tension had to find a release.   I was leading my children by example and it was not a good example Sometimes  what we do as parents, not what we say, is more important at any age. A lesson I had forgotten but was thankful to learn it again.

I found myself in a terrible fight with my daughter and words were said that were hurtful and were untrue. I had allowed myself an error of judgement and it ended in a dramatic fight, which was uncomfortable for all those around us. I realized that I had made the problem worse and I upon reflection, I tried to put myself in my daughters place.

When I did I realized that she was just as sad as I was and she was dealing with the impending goodbyes exactly like I was. Once I came to this realization, I took steps to apologize; deal with the pain of the goodbye and by my doing so, allowed my daughter to do the same.   My daughter and I made our peace and were then able to deal with the pain of saying goodbye and moving on to the next adventure