Ouch

I have been visiting my son and his family in Virginia. I live in Nevada. Long trip.
While there we did lots of great things---a college visit trip with his two high school teenagers--a big family dinner with his four teenagers and their "friends"---separate meals with the kids where I get to find out about their lives. At the end of the visit my son took me to join up with two very very long time friends of mine for a "girls' night" at a lovely historic hotel in Richmond, Virginia. It was grand.

However the "ouch" came as my son was talking with these long time friends and their husbands before we left for the girls' night They have known him since birth. They were asking my son if he and his wife planned to stay in Virginia after the kids go off to college. My son's response was, "Well our parents live on the east coast so we will most probably stay on the east coast." (Remember I live in Nevada---far away from the east coast.) OUCH! I made a joke of it at the time but OUCH! Thoughts like "Well who am I??----Don't I count???---Am I not a priority in your thoughts of parents??"

There is a part of me that wants to excuse his statement as "He just wasn't thinking"  or "Just a careless remark" or "Well I am the one who moved far away." But I have to admit it hurt. I'm not certain what to do about it. I probably won't just let it go because it will niggle at me. But I also don't want to make it bigger than it was. I feel like some clients I have worked with who make situations like this huge. Then it leads to hurt feelings for years and emotional cutoffs. Hurt and anger are not far apart.  I don't want to do that.

So I guess I will pray about it, turn it over in my mind many times, figure out what and how to talk about it with him without putting him on the defensive, and find "the loving thing to do."

You can too.

And know God is with us in this too!

Blessings-Penny