Never too late to talk!

It’s interesting to think about keeping the lines of communication open with my daughters who are now young adults. But, every day reminds me that as parents we have lots to continue dialoguing about with our children. The content is just different.

I’m so blessed to have a wonderful relationship with my daughters. We talk about career goals and what they want to accomplish, our involvement in ministry, challenging relationships – whether they are friendships, with colleagues, or with people at church - and how we can handle them. We discuss mistakes we’ve made and the lessons learned. We also discuss standards of cleanliness – and as you can guess, ours do not match! Nevertheless, there are countless things to discuss.

We are also uniquely positioned as three single women living together and navigating a world of issues that impact us. It is not uncommon for us to discuss everything from simply being confident in who we were uniquely created to be to healthy friendships to dating to one day bringing me some son-in-laws and grandbabies to preparing for our future in case we end up old spinsters.  Yes, we run the gamut! As a single woman, I get to not only talk with my daughters about relationships; I also get to model the single lifestyle as a woman of strong faith. It is interesting – and sometimes just downright hilarious – to see our differences. I am very much old school so there are certain topics I won’t even consider discussing with a man! On the other hand, it’s very interesting to see my daughters’ comfort level with talking about almost anything with their male friends. And, they actually try to give me relationship advice – go figure!

This incredible journey that we’re on together provides a fascinating opportunity to talk and learn across generations. We have many courageous conversations and we don’t always see eye to eye. They will, however, always know what I think. And, I will always reaffirm our family values. At the same time, I recognize that I must step back and allow them to be the secure, confident, thoughtful young women I reared them to be. I believe that they will make good decisions about every aspect of their lives – relationships, love, career and life in general.

I’m learning a LOT from them (some of which I will NEVER embrace) but  I also believe that they are learning from me – as we embrace relationships, love and our beautiful gift of sexuality in a respectful way that’s based on our values. 

by Gwen Baker