My son told me he talks to me more than he talks to anyone else

Dear Delyara, He said it casually, while putting his shoes on, like it wasn’t a life-changing sentence. We had been talking about university applications and one of his friends who had dropped out, and then he just said, “I tell you more than I tell anyone, you know that, right?” He was already halfway out the door when he said it. I don’t think he understood what that gave me. Parenting can feel so full of correction, reminders, cooking, driving, cleaning, repeating, and worrying that it is easy to miss the deeper thing underneath: whether your children feel safe enough to bring you their unpolished selves. That one sentence told me that, for him, I am still that place. I sat at the kitchen table after he left and cried into my tea like an idiot. I was proud. And grateful. And a little stunned.