Letting Go: A Parent’s Challenge
I believe the hardest part of being a parent is the moment you have to let your child go, to hand over the reins of their own life. While we control our children, doing things for them because it’s quicker, thinking for them because it feels right, they don’t learn anything if we stay stuck in that phase for too long. I constantly try to give Sasha more initiative and live alongside her as a friend, but sometimes it’s incredibly tough. Yet, it’s undeniably fascinating. It’s interesting to watch her start to embrace her independence.
One of the hardest things for us as parents is letting her go out on her own. A flood of negative thoughts rushes in, but I push them away—after all, it’s perfectly normal for kids to go out and play. Ultimately, we all have a survival instinct, and I trust in that. I can say we’re already practicing letting Sasha go out by herself. I often wondered at what age we would start doing this. Well, now that she’s five, we feel comfortable letting her go out with her older brother in Kyiv. At the dacha or in Khmelnytskyi, she’s been out with her friends.
And oh, how shy she has become! We took her to the sauna, and it was something to behold: wrapped in a towel like a lady, making sure no one was peeking! Well, here we go…