It’s scary once they are gone for good……outside.
I have this friend of mine, A very cerebral type of person. About as realistic and level-headed person you will ever meet. A parent of a child with diabetes. We had this discussion yesterday and i have not been able to leave the topic since we discussed it. It revolves around one question.
At what point (or is there ever a point) that we, as parents of kids with diabetes, ever stop worrying about the diabetes aspects of their lives including the ultimate fear of running low in the middle of the night? Now PWDs, especially adults, I’m going to ask you to chime in here in a minute with your expert advice.
Now I’m well aware that we as parents will always worry about our kids. Hey, they are our kids, right? But when they move out, I know the fear of a car accident or a rowdy night with friends subsides, doesn’t it? Even in the back of our minds we push down our fears.
I just do not believe that the night-time hypo fears I have will ever go away. Now I’m not saying we should live our lives in total fear but I have the feeling that my gut will always wonder; are they okay? More so than with kids who do not deal with something like diabetes.
I realize that those of you who are adults with diabetes have to deal with this issue on a very personal basis, and I’m not asking you to give a statement that will ‘poof’ make this feeling go away for parents but your perspective is invaluable here and so I ask those adults who live with diabetes, who had parents that were active in their care when being younger; (I’m sure you do not send you BG numbers to your parents every morning) did you tell them to just deal with it? What happened when you moved out?
Is it just a matter of time and your parents asked less and less of ‘how you are doing’?
I also ask those who have had kids move out (beyond college, I mean moved out for good) did you come to grips with this fear; does it diminish? Why/how does it diminish?
This is a real fear in realization and I hope to hear as I know many parents would also like to know. Please respond via the comments to this blog and not merely on the face book page. Thank you all.
This parent thing is never easy…………one day I’ll get it right.
I am a diabetesdad.