Role Reversal

My children are in the process of becoming adults. They are 19 and 21 years old and their lives are in transition. As their lives change my life changes as well. (For one thing it's alot quieter around the house.)

My son Mark is attending college and my daughter Missy is doing an internship at a national ministry. On Thanksgiving night Missy wanted to go shopping at the local outlet mall for their "midnight madness" sale. (To be totally transparent, the last thing I wanted to do was go shopping "all night" on my little vacation.)

After much deliberation I decided to go shopping with Deb and Missy on Thanksgiving night. Why - because I want to spend time with my daughter. It's kind of a role reversal. If I want to have a relationship with my adult children I need to let them do the planning and be willing to do things that they want to do. (I think alot of people still see their adult children as kids. In other words they don't know how to relate to their children as adults.)

We approached the freeway exit for the outlet mall and traffic was backed up for two miles on the interstate. We waited in "line" for about 45 minutes to get to the parking lot. Once we got into the stores the check out lines snaked around the entire store so it was difficult to move around, look at product or even to just stand still.

I think every high school girl in the state of Minnesota was there. We finally got to bed at 6:00 AM. We had a blast, found some good deals and starting schemeing about how to do it better next year. The best part though was I got to spend time with my 19 year old "baby" girl. I learned a valuable leadership lesson: If you love someone you will let them lead some of the time.