I Miss You Mom!

For most of my son's life, I've made every effort to have a flexible work schedule so I could be with him as much as possible.

When he was small, I knew it was tough for him when I had to leave him to go off to work. I remember the "pucker up" face he made and how he'd tell me he missed me, even before I left. That's one of the tough things about being a mom nobody can warn you about. It makes you feel so terrible.

But now he's older, in middle school, and here's the funny part, he still misses me when I have to work out-of-town or be away late when he's home. I should take it as a high compliment, I know, since most teens wish their parents would disappear completely, still I always thought way back then, when I was a mother of a toddler that being a mother of a teen would be easy. Hardly. What you learn over the years is that being a mom of any kid of any age is full of challenges, you just trade one for another.