January 29, 2010
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Apron Strings: The Ties That Bind
I’ve been reading the book If Its Not One Thing, It’s Your Mother by Anita Renfroe. It’s about having a mother and being a mother; having a daughter and being a daughter. It’s really amazing how somebody can write something that’s so glaringly obvious in such a way that it makes you think a little more deeply about it. What set me off on a mental ramble was the observation that children begin their existence as close to their mother as humanly possible, then spend the rest of their lives trying to get away from her. First through birth, then through a series of crawling, walking, running, school bus riding, driving, college going escape attempts. The umbilical cord is quickly replaced with figurative apron strings that keep our children tied to us tightly when they’re young and, ideally, loosen and stretch as they grow into adulthood.
My daughter has been systematically unraveling the apron strings for the past six-and-a-half years.
