10.08.2026
The child who leaves
I taught them at home for eighteen years. No school, no teaching qualification and no one’s permission. Me, two children and a library.
And one day they leave, which is exactly what had to happen and what I worked for the whole of that time.
Nobody warns you what it feels like when you pull it off.
There’s a trap in there I’ve seen in a lot of parents, and in myself: confusing having raised them with their belonging to you. It disguises itself very well. It goes by the name of concern, advice, “I only want what’s best for you”.
My children live their own lives and don’t talk to me much. For a while I took it badly. Now I understand that if they had needed to stay, I would have failed.
If you’re raising someone, this is the only thing I can tell you with forty years’ head start: you are preparing them to leave. Everything else is decoration.