As long as I can remember, September has been the start of the school year. It’s always exciting and filled with new hope and opportunities. Fresh paper; new pencils and all that.

When I was a student,I always looked forward to the start of the year, even that feeling didn’t last. As an academic, I still look forward to the start of the year – it’s my chance to learn (yup, even as an academic, I look forward to learning new things), to improve on things I’ve been doing and to share some of what I have learned. As I get older, I’ve found that what I share includes more about life and how to have a good one than it did when I was young. I include thoughts on learning to BE and not just learning ABOUT.

My youngest child (of three) moved into the residence at his school the other day.

It’s a time to reflect on how proud I am of all my children. I was far from perfect, but for the most part, we prepared our children well.

How are you preparing your children? Are you letting them become adults? Did you structure their lives in such a way that they rarely had any free time? You’re not doing them any favours.

There’s a lovely CBC radio bit on this here: How helicopter parents hover over campuses

I think about this in relation to my own children, but I also think about this because I am about to meet a new crop of students – many of whom are just staring their adult lives.

I wonder how many parents I will meet?

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