In a perfect world giving advice to our children appears to be easy. However, I encountered a situation last night that left me speechless. My children have birthdays that are honestly weeks apart. Well my 15 yr old lost 50 dollars from her birthday money on the 23rd of this month. My 22 yr old was able to get her gamer friends to jump into action and before we knew it, Amazon packages were arriving at our house.

As we were watching her open the boxes, I turn and notice my 18 yr old standing in the doorway with tears in her eyes. I didn’t know what to do. After the last box was opened, the 18 yr old tried to force a happy expression by saying how happy she was for Ally. However, her face was still saying something else. After Ally took her stuff back to her room, we pulled Ari into the room and asked if she was ok. She then went on to say that she was so happy for her sister, but she couldn’t help but think about how own experience.

She said she wished she had a friend who could just say the words “Happy Birthday” to her. We have worked on socialization for years with her, but we still struggle with that connection. I keep telling her that her bestie will show up right when she needs her, and that she needs to be open to forming the connection. I am not sure what she needed to hear, but the only thing I could think about was a promise that things can get better. Parenting is never easy no matter how old children get.