Confessions Of An Early Grieving Mom

I cannot believe my oldest child used to be too small to fit into newborn size clothing. Today he’s taking anatomy quizzes and talking engineering with his dad.

The posts and photos of moms dropping off their kids at college are killing me.

It’s too much.

How is time going so fast?

I’m over here mourning the passing of time and, if I am honest, I know it’s a tiny bit dramatic.

It’s perfectly acceptable to mourn dropping off your child for college, but mine still has 6 years with me before that happens.

 

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(photo credit)

I have an affliction I like to call “Early Grieving Disorder”(EGD). If you wonder if you have it, here are some of the symptoms:

  • Kindergarten graduations make you cry because those kids are going to be in college and married before you know it (only 12 years!)
  • You have a hard time enjoying the current parenting stage you are in because you’re wrapped up in sorrow over the fact that it’s going to be over soon.
  • Social media on the first and last days of school push you over the edge.
  • Country songs & Butterfly Kisses render you completely incapacitated. (even though you know they are completely cheesy and ridiculous)
  • Your friends/spouse are likely to mock you for the tears you shed over random children’s milestones:

Nathan: Why are you sobbing? What terrible tragedy happened?

 

Me: Lydia just graduated from kindergarten and she was wearing a sweet little cap and gown and there was a picture of her when she was a baby and another picture that said she wanted to be a princess when she grows up.

 

Nathan: Who is Lydia?

 

Me: The daughter of a person I follow online.

 

Nathan: You do know that being a princess isn’t realistic, right? Don’t you think it’s a bit much to have a “graduation” for every single grade? That child is going to “graduate” 12 times before her actual graduation.

 

Me: You are dead inside, aren’t you?

 

(This is purely hypothetical)

  • EGD is more often found in women. Onset happens after the birth of her first child.

I have no idea how this happened to me. I want to blame all the sweet grandmothers who insisted on convincing me to “carpe diem” and told me “the days are long, but the years are short”.

Who is with me? Do you have EGD? What are your symptoms?

5 thoughts on “Confessions Of An Early Grieving Mom

  1. I was dancing with my boys in the kitchen and had a “flash forward” to dancing at their weddings. I about lost it then! I can totally relate to EGD.

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