My son Seth wants to be an aeronautical engineer. He loves planes. We go to air museums and watch movies about WWII fighter planes. We have paper airplanes stuck on rooftops and furniture. There are books about airplanes on Seth's desk, nightstand, and bookshelf. There are also airplane books in our family room, in his backpack and on his Christmas wish list. He's assembled several model airplanes and uses the kitchen counter as his runway or the stairs steps as his hanger. It's not uncommon to come down in the morning and see an airplane sitting in the middle of the dining table.
What is it about airplanes?
I wonder if it's about the jets of an airplane that help it lift off the ground and to take flight. Or perhaps it's the wings that give it balance and help it soar at high altitudes. Just today Seth and I were walking across a parking lot when he stopped as soon as he heard a plane overhead. He looked skyward and said, "Awesome!"
This sounds amazingly familiar to my objective as a parent: to teach my children to lift off the ground as infants and toddlers, to take flight as a middle schoolers by becoming more independent, then to soar as teenagers and young adults with the belief that the sky is the limit to all they can accomplish as independent adults, navigating their own destiny.
Two of my children are "flying independently" in Middle School. The others are "soaring" as young adults. They are all amazing individuals, each charting out a course that is their personal destiny.
Just thinking about my kids causes me to stop, look skyward and say, "Awesome!"
