When your child turns 18, graduates school and becomes an adult, you momentarily feel the finality of their childhood. Cue: tears.

Endings bring memories to the fore and, rather than reflect on the big celebrations and milestones, I find myself capturing glimpses of the most ordinary days accompanied by a visceral longing for what was: his curious face in the rear-view mirror as I drove, a small hand tugging on my skirt, the lull of his sleepy body curled into mine. Early parenthood is rooted in the monotonous and the domestic but there is an undeniable comfort in the humdrum of home life.

We are inundated with parenting advice from birth, but no one seems to be talking about the fact that, in an increasingly artificial and overwhelming world where most things are immediate, we have to show our children how to be human. We have to remind them that, just like the birds, the bugs and the trees, we are nature; nothing about our energy or productivity is robotic. Yet we are conditioned to chase the aspirational; we’re always clinging to the next big thing. We do it as parents, too – we think about what’s best for our kids and then what........

© The Guardian