Part of the time you can feel as if they don't appreciate a thing you do. Part of the time they ignore you. Part of the time they're embarrassed by you. Yet you're expected to take the high road and understand because, well, you're older and know better than they do.
Other times, you are so close to them and so proud of them that you know they're the best thing you could ever create, and their successes mean more to you than your own.
Sometimes it takes a child a long time to grow up. Sometimes they break your heart, over and over, and your tears would fill an ocean. A wise Bishop once said to a mother grieving the selfishness and sinfulness of her son, "I can't believe the child of so many tears will spiritually perish." He was right, too. The boy matured and reconciled with his mother. Your suffering, in God's great balancing, will bring that child to maturity in God's good time.
When children finally do grow up, sometimes they say "My God, how did you put up with me (translation: "let me live") when I was - (here insert whatever age they were when they gave you the most trouble.) They are beautiful words to your ears!
Unfortunately, about the time you and your adult child become friends, they often choose to move away, and become so busy with their own families, building their own nests and lives, that you don't see as much of them anymore. That's all right. You want them to. I know. I remember those busy years in my thirties, forties, and even fifties, when my Mom surely didn't see me as much as she wanted to. But she knew, too, that life has its own rhythms and patterns. As I know my own children's lives do. I'm so proud of them, their spouses, their children.
Give your children Roots: Discipline, consistency, spiritual roots and teachings, a church or synagogue home. They'll decide when they grow older what their own path is, but you've given them the truth that God exists, given them moral values, given them the supportive reality of a church community. Also give them Wings: room to simply be, to move in their own directions, to make mistakes. We all sometimes learn more from our mistakes and failures than we do from our successes. Moving forward when it's toughest makes us tough! Teach them above all how to love and keep on loving, in full commitment, in full passion,and to be in love with the life you've blessed them with. And remember, you are truly a blessed woman! You chose to have them, after all.