Gloomy blog

I've never actually heard it myself, but have read that when farmers separate cows from their calves, the mournful mooing of the mothers can be heard over several fields. Well, imagine me mooing here. Daughter 2 went back down south to university today and I'm missing her horribly.

I think there ought to be a law which says that children have to stay with their parents for ever. Yes, I do realise that this is ridiculous, but - well, mooo. When you're young, it seems perfectly natural that you should go and do your own thing, but from the parents' point of view, you've spent all these years nurturing these people, whom you love more than anyone else in the world, and then you're expected to wave them off and get on with things. Meantime you feel as if someone had amputated a vital bit of your anatomy. Yes, it's possible to continue life with only one arm, but it's not such fun.

And of course, at the same time I know perfectly well that it's a good thing that the offspring can cope alone, and have lots of friends, and, yes, indeed, I acknowledge that they have to make their own independent lives. It's just that simply knowing this doesn't make it as much easier as you'd think.

Some time ago, before I started blogging myself, I wondered if other people felt the same as me, and so I Googled "missing my daughter". What I found were lots of parents whose daughters had either died or been given to the other parent in a custody battle. Which rather put things in perspective. So I shall try counting my blessings, and go and make a cup of tea.