Their own room

The two little girls are in their own bedroom now. They are sharing for the first time tonight so we will have to see how that goes.

Last night was the first night that Charlotte was in the children's bedroom but Emily was away, at a sleepover at Amy's house, so they weren't together.

I was in pieces last night, it felt like my babies had grown up and left home! I can't believe how quickly they have got older and I realise how little they will want us in their lives through their teens and twenties. I'm going to miss them so much. Motherhood is so cruel: it requires us to lavish on them all our time, attention and energy for years, and then be cast adrift as our children reject our efforts to be close to them. And we wonder why mothers of older children have no life of their own? It's because caring for younger children requires us to have no life of our own.

I guess all this makes a good case for me to go back to work. One of the reasons I have always enjoyed working is becuase it gives me something to do and because I don't want to have nothing left of my own once the children don't want me around so much. On the other hand, if I give up work, I will just go to the gym instead!

All this being said, if and when Charlotte (in particular) insists on her independence, we will have done our job well.