Welcome back to the Simplicity Diaries with me, Ken John Payne. So glad you could make time to just join us for this brief little podcast. This summer was a rather big one for Katherine, my wife, and I, as we just a little while ago took our two daughters down to the airport.
And they are 17 and 20 years old now, and there we were at this big city airport. And one daughter was going off, the younger one, the 17-year-old, was headed off to Germany on an exchange. And my older daughter, the 20-year-old, she was headed off to Australia, one east and one west.
And so it was a it was a big day, really, in the life, you know, we all have these big days in the life of our family, those days. You just know, even as you're having them, that you're going to remember these, this day, for many years to come. And so we arrived, and quite a complex airport, you know, as often they are, but this one's particularly complex, and various terminals, and so on, and you have to go in and come out and go through security, and it's quite a thing.
Anyway, we took them down, and not long, lengthy goodbyes. We tried not to. And so we give them both big hugs goodbye, and my big daughter takes the younger one by the hand, and hand in hand, off they go through security.
Backpacks on their backs, and off they go to seek their fortune, to find their place in the world. And it was all a conversation for my oldest daughter, was all about helping the younger one find her way. She'd never been in a big aeroplane before, and she hadn't ever gone through security.
She's waved, you know, me off a number of times, but there she was doing it herself. And you know, it was just so lovely, because my older daughter was saying, okay, I'll take you through security. We'll get you to the gate.
You know, we'll work it out together. We'll make sure everything is on time. I'll show you where the board is.
Yep, yep, no, you need your boarding pass out. And she was really helping organize the younger one, and the younger one was really accepting it, and they were figuring things out together, with the 20-year-old, you know, taking the lead, of course, because she'd been through this drill, you know, since she was, went on an exchange when she was 17. Now they, neither of them had traveled all that much by aeroplane up to this point, but they traveled.
They traveled across land. We'd, you know, been on many, many camping expeditions. We traveled across the country, actually, from one side of the United States to the other on our motorcycles, camping all the way.
We've been up north into Canada, but this was their first experience of being on their own. And as they went through security, Catherine and I were standing watching, and they turned around to wave, and they were still holding hands, and off they went, out of sight. And we stood there for just a wee while, and I thought, you know, I turned to Catherine and said, probably what was on both of our minds, actually, was, you know, we've tried to raise kids, you know, good and bad.
We've made mistakes. We've got things right. We've done good things, things that haven't worked out.
But at least these two are best friends. At least they're besties, and they're there for each other. And I remember thinking, I hope that, you know, that they do beautifully.
I hope they have great fun. I hope they, you know, really have these just wonderful experiences. But most of all, I just, just let them be okay.
Just let them be okay. And such a big part of what helps a kid be okay is a connected family, right? We, we all of us know that. And it's in these moments when your kids are older, and they're going through situations like busy, crowded airports together, that all those simple little activities, all those little rituals, all the things that you've done over the years, culminate, they all coalesce.
And there you are as a parent, we'll all go through this in one way or another. But there we are watching them take their own first steps into the big world. And all those little steps, all the rituals, all the little things that we've done, all the bedtime, simple little things we've done each evening for years and years, all the breakfasts and the way in which we do things, all the simple little tidy ups of the room and insisting on it, you know, all that building of a child's will, all the allowing them the downtime just to be bored and figure things out, and then be self creative and not not rely on, you know, on screens to entertain them and all those holding back of too much too soon.
All that, all that simplicity in life, all comes together in those moments. And that hope, just let them be okay. Well, maybe that's standing on better ground than it otherwise would have.
Okay, bye.
