Charles - how will I miss you?

For those of you who don't know yet, my only child, Charles, is going to teach in Korea for a year. He will be leaving Monday 19 October. This is the feared "Leaving the Nest" time for me and I thought I would share some of the emotions with you and hopefully make it easier for some of you when your turn comes.

Dear Charles, our lives will have been wrapped around each other for the last 23 years, 9 months and 4 days on the day you leave and I can't imagine how it will be to wait for so long to have you home again.

What I will miss:
Being your GPS - You phoning me on the way to a strange place asking me the way and then arguing with me about my directions! Why do you phone me if you know where to go??

Being your deadline - How do you always manage to push your deadline to the last second and not only that, you push it onto me and then start nagging and threatening me that I'm not going to make it. Remember paying for your flight to Korea??

Drinking your tea - I need to ask you to make me tea a hundred times before you do, then you make it and leave it to draw while you sit outside smoking and reading a book. By the time I start freaking out about my tea you discover that the drawing tea is now ice cold and beyond strong then all you do is nuke it in the mike and tell me it was made with love!

Smoking - I am happy that you respect the no smoking inside the house rule, but why can't you put your stompies in the ashtrays provided at the front door and at the back door? The dogs will be happy to have ash-free water and it will probably take a year to get rid of all stompies in my garden!

Shoes - I don't know where you got the habit of taking off your shoes when you come into the house at night, I learnt very quickly to expect your shoes anywhere and always managed to avoid falling over them when walking in the dark house at night.

Sleeping - I am so used to waking up at 4am when you come home from playing computer games with Charl. Hopefully my sleeping pattern will eventually go back to normal!

Chatting - I often wonder what it must be like having a daughter to chat to. All I can say is chatting to you is never boring, your theories and opinions are a mixture of naivety, entertainment, frustration and amazement. You've got IT - don't waste IT!!

 All I can say is it's been a pleasure raising you and I hope you have an amazing adventure forwards, you are well prepared and will be able to handle anything that crosses your path. Dink voor jy doen! 

Remember your fanclub at home loves you very much
Woof - Ugly, Lucy, Roxy and Wit Hond
Bye, Bye King - Bongi
Bye Fat - Johanna
Bye my Liefie - Ouma
Bye my boy - Oupa
Bye Asshole - Mom