I don't know if this was our last family vacation

I had no idea that the last bedtime story I read my kids would be the last, or that the last time I held them — or kissed a scraped knee or sang them a silly song — would be the final time. That ignorance spared me the immediate pain of knowing those rituals were ending, but looking back opens a new awareness of how quickly it all goes and a dread that it will be over sooner than I'm comfortable with.

Parenting teens brings a strange sense of finality: the days can feel long, but the years are short, and as they get older they pull away. One minute you can't even make a solo trip to the bathroom; the next, between friends, extracurriculars and part-time jobs, you're practically begging them to hang out.

So I offered my four boys, ranging in age from 13 to 20, a family vacation — to them it was a trip to Beaches Turks and Caicos; to their dad and me, it was a chance to soak up these last opportunities for complete togetherness.

Turks and Caicos

parenting teens, family vacation, bedtime story, scraped knee, family togetherness, turks caicos, teen boys, ages 13-20, part-time jobs, extracurriculars