Today we had lunch with Michael’s colleague, who mentioned how nice it was to have her nuclear family back together for the holidays as her kids are now grown-up and living elsewhere.
Suddenly, I felt that I could picture the day when Winston is off to college, leaving an empty house behind. Well, the house is not empty, as Michael and I will still be here just like before Winston’s birth. But it will not feel the same as a family.
It was then and there that I realized the difference between a family and a partnership. Before kids, a family is not really a family – it’s more like a partnership. A kid completes a family. After a kid’s departure to college, the family kind of goes back to a partnership. When Winston grows up, one of these days, he will feel that his nuclear family is no longer his parents, but his own family, with his own kids, even though in my view (if I am still alive then), he remains the core part of my nuclear family.
My heart already aches a little bit from this thought...
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