Dear Page,
My son is my only child; his father had a child with someone else so I am happy that my son has a brother.
He is grown and on his own now. Though we don’t see each other weekly, we communicate on a regular basis my phone or email. I would characterize us as close, he attends major family functions, not as an obligation but as something he looks forward to. He always does special things on Mother’s Day, birthday, and sometimes for no reason at all.
If I feel like I need to see him just to spend a little time together (lunch, dinner or just watching a ball game), I call him and we get together. He does the same with me.
This year we had two Thanksgiving dinners, the family gathering and then on Friday he had a dinner at his home, which I attended, for friends who have no family around. I think, I may have met his future wife, something I’ve been looking forward to.
To make a long story longer, yes grown children have a way of making their way back to the family…especially if you had a good relationship while they were growing up.
I personally don’t know what “normal” is because I’ve seen some pretty dysfunctional families that have the mother, father and 3.5 children, job, house, dog, etc., that weren’t what I would call “normal”, but did everything they could just to look that way.
I raised my son on my own, but had family near by and lots of good friends and roll models both male and female. We had our disagreements (some big ones), but he turned out to be a really good man…and I thank God for that.
To me you seem like a very levelheaded woman, good person and loving mother.
Blessings….