I had a lump the size of a small planet in my throat this afternoon when I put Jess on the bus for Montreal.

This is kind of silly because she left home seven years ago to finish her schooling in Montreal, so she is quite grown up now and the nest has been empty for a long time.

In my head I know that the whole point of parenting is to try to make yourself superfluous, to raise your children to be independent adults. In my head I know she has her life in the city now with her partner.

But there are these brief moments when my heart just absolutely refuses to listen to any sort of logic. There are these brief moments when I'm back at the place I was when I put this tiny little five-year-old child on a school bus and watched her go off to begin her life outside our home.

And I had one of them this afternoon.

It's very odd making the shift from being a parent of a young child to being the parent of an adult. From time to time I catch myself telling her how to live her life, which is completely out of bounds. It's a hard transition, learning to treat her as an adult. I haven't made it well, but I'm trying.

Tonight it's back to two placemats on the kitchen table. Tonight it's back to cooking for two. Mostly that's fine because like I said the nest has been empty a long time and our lives have changed.

But now and again, I get these moments ...

--Marn