re: Pain. The kind that comes from teen daughter growing up.

Here's a snippet from a poem I wrote for my daughter on getting married.

My paternal instincts were always very simple - to guard, to protect and to teach,

Knowing deep down that every success would put you further from my reach.

Was a very proud, yet sad day.

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The youngest one just went off to college last August making us official empty nesters. At times it is difficult. Sometimes on a weekend or after work I find myself just looking at their rooms. They are not there, but so much of their childhood is still there.

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My daughter is 22 now and just finished college. We’ve always had a great relationship in part to her mom getting very sick when she was 6 years old. I was more involved with taking care of her than a lot of dads for a year or so.

I still remember when she first left for college for a month or two I was still in habit of trying to buy her favorite snacks and such when I was at the grocery store on the weekends.

She still calls me a few times a week to chat. When she comes home she’s always excited that we may try a new restaurant. This time of the year we are counting down to when we can go get some crawfish. Then a few months from now she will be wanting me to plan a boil and will talk about that for days leading up to it.
I miss my princess.

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I hope you are trolling.

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We decided to do more things differnently with thie 2nd one.
Since the way the first one turned out. Not that we show "dissappointment" towards her, the first child. But it has created tension in the household and jealously with the first.

We are hoping that the 2nd one wont make the same mistakes as the frist.
We spent a ton of money in lawyer fees with the first between the 3 different fathers trying to get child support for her and the children. But it didnt go through. One first one was an EX NFL player whose broke, the second one decided to go back to School to avoid paying child support and the last one is in jail.

Its a mess.
Shes a mess.
The kids are a lot to handle, we use to watch them but they arent like normal kids. So we just threw her and the kids in a rental and the wife goes over 3x a week. So she doesnt dump the grandchildren on us.

We dont know where we went wrong with the first. But we are trying to get her to a point where she can be independant from us.
But that doesnt seem to be possible.

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And looking back, it flew by. Don’t rush it

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Days are long but the years are short

Only thing that makes me tear up is thinking of the passage of time with my kids

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Pain. The kind that comes from teen daughter growing up.

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I'm on the cusp... my daughter becomes a teenager in two months

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oldest is 14 and has a pretty serious girlfriend

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I sincerely hope it’s for a women’s prison because if not you’re possibly having a 4th grandkid with no child support.

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We are gritting our teeth. Everytime and every story I hear is because a gulliable female inmate fell for a convict.

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In my experience her first time is more painful for her than it is for you. Especially the back door.

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Tell me something keep me from being a crying bitch.

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It feels like space, distance, conflict. She's becoming an independent human a screwed up world. The closeness is still there, nothing has changed, she will always come back to you.