{"id":12540,"date":"2020-04-27T23:36:23","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T05:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/?p=12540"},"modified":"2020-04-27T23:37:13","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T05:37:13","slug":"while-you-are-growing-up-they-are-growing-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/while-you-are-growing-up-they-are-growing-old\/","title":{"rendered":"While You Are Growing Up, They Are Growing Old"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\nI was really bummed out because it was my Mother\u2019s 78th birthday and we couldn\u2019t\nbe with her even though she lives only fifteen minutes away.  With the quarantine we could only stand on\nher front porch singing Happy Birthday to her through the glass and then leave\na cake an balloons on her porch. I am sad we couldn\u2019t be together but I am\ngrateful that I at least got to see her smiling face as she and my Dad stood together\nwatching us sing through the glass\u2026I love my parents so much…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLove your Parents. We are so busy growing up, we often forget they are also growing old.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving\nhome tonight that quote came into my mind. It\u2019s from a blog post I wrote six\nyears ago in 2014 about my parents. The following is an excerpt from what I\u2019d\nwritten:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a child you see your parents as these invincible adults. We\nsee our dads as these big strong men who work hard, protect us, and just take\ncare of things.  We see our moms as our caretakers who are always there to\nmake sure our needs are attended to that we always know we are loved.  I\ndon\u2019t know about all of you but for all of my life when I looked at my parents\nthey seemed to be frozen at the same age. All through my growing up they looked\nthe same age to me \u2013 strong, energetic, and young – that is how they\u2019ve always\nseemed to me.  Always, that is, until now. Now I see a cute little white\nhaired mom who is fragile and breakable, and I see a gray haired father who\nwalks a little slower than he once did. Both now in their mid 70s the\nrealization is finally hitting me that one day down the road (and I pray that\nit is many more years down the road still) these two people who have been the\nabsolute rock and foundation for my life may no longer be on this earth with\nme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a thought I simply cannot imagine without breaking into\ntears. Even as I write this I can\u2019t stop my eyes from welling up.  I am\nnot ready for the day to come when my parents are with me anymore.  I\u2019m\njust not.  They have been my guides and my anchor my entire life. Whenever\nI need advice I always know I can call my Dad, and whenever I need sympathy I\nknow I can call my Mom.  And I don\u2019t want to imagine a day when I can no\nlonger pick up the phone and do that or when I can knock on their door and have\nthem there to answer it. Yet it is a reality that I need to start to remember\nso that I don\u2019t allow myself to take one moment I have with them for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I need to make more time to spend with my parents. I need to\nmake it a priority to spend quality time with them.  I need to make sure I\nget their advice now on the things I should know for the future so I don\u2019t\nwaste my chance to get it while they are still both here with me.  I need\nto ask them to tell me more stories about their own life and all the lessons\nthey have learned that might someday be helpful to me.  I need to make\nsure I let them know how much I love them and what they mean to me while they\nare still here to hear it in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every one of you reading this blog have parents that are aging\nif you are still blessed enough to have them on this earth. No matter how old\nyour parents are the reality is that any of us could lose our parents at any\ntime. Let\u2019s all make an effort to make more time for them, express more love\nfor them, and make sure they feel appreciated while we still have them with us.\u201d   (end of excerpt)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Mother is now 78 and this Sunday my dad will turn 82.\u00a0 I love them so much and I\u2019m so grateful they are both still around. \u00a0And while it\u2019s really hard to only get to see them through that glass front door, I\u2019m grateful this pandemic has given me the opportunity to serve my parents more by giving me the chance to get groceries for them and drop off home cooked dinners and treats for them each week. It\u2019s made me so happy to get to do things for them after they\u2019ve spent their entire lives doing things for me. But without question I long for the day to come when I\u2019ll be able to give both of them hugs again\u2026I miss their hugs\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy Birthday Mom!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
My cute Mom and Dad (parents of Amy Rees Anderson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book \u201cWhat Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life<\/a>\u201d ) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I was really bummed out because it was my Mother\u2019s 78th birthday and we couldn\u2019t be with her even though she lives only fifteen minutes away.  With the quarantine we could only stand on her front porch singing Happy Birthday to her through the glass and then leave a cake an balloons on her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3403,387,3342,395,501,22682,1028,5045,419,5044,550,2027,999,240,2557,1620,22690,5040,51,4340,7,3089,65,5043,4953,4010,5042,64,4419,35,16858,5041,990,2348,2559,949,4599,21214,207,2838,78,23455,23454],"class_list":["post-12540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adult","tag-advice","tag-aging","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-appreciate","tag-appreciate-your-parents","tag-attention","tag-baby-boomer","tag-birthday","tag-birthday-gift","tag-blessed","tag-chances","tag-child","tag-children","tag-dad","tag-death","tag-dont-take-your-parents-for-granted","tag-dying","tag-family","tag-fragile","tag-future","tag-gerald-rees","tag-gratitude","tag-grey","tag-growing-old","tag-leslie-rees","tag-lessons-learned","tag-life","tag-living","tag-love","tag-love-your-parents","tag-make-time","tag-mom","tag-old","tag-parents","tag-priority","tag-quality-time","tag-serve-your-parents","tag-surprise","tag-sympathy","tag-time","tag-treasure-the-time-you-have-with-them","tag-we-are-so-busy-growing-up-we-often-forget-they-are-growing-old"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12540"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12544,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12540\/revisions\/12544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}