Instead, "I'll see ya dad. I'm going now." "Where are you going huh? Out. Out where, huh?" "With friends. I won't be late. (Kiss, kiss) Bye!!!! "

There's a part of me that has been waiting and praying for this moment for a long time because it means more freedom and independence for me, too. No longer do I have to get up at 6:30 to drive the car pool, or rush home from work at 11:00 am because my child has a stomach ache and needs to come home. No longer do I have to plan my weekends around whether my daughter needs a ride to the movies, or because she has to be picked up at 9:15 making it impossible for me to actually have an evening out that spans the entire night.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I'm not. At least not a lot. I loved it when my kids and their friends filled the car and I would listen to their laughter and their stories. I liked getting an early start in the mornings (although I wouldn't have minded it if it had been maybe an hour or so later and now it can b if my internal clock isn't so regimented by now that it wont change to a normal waking hour). I like feeling relaxed with the idea that, at least during the daylight hours, I can feel calm and secure knowing that if my daughter needs to go somewhere or return from somewhere she can do it on her own.

However, this is not all roses and sweet candies. With this new freedom/independence is a new anxiety, fear filled syndrome that comes with the knowledge that she not only wants to drive herself around in the daytimeshe wants to do it at night too. So naturally, the first thing I did was to run out and get her a cellular phone. The idea of a 16 year old having one of those things is an anathema to me but the choice is knowing she will have contact with the powers that can provide for her safety, welfare and emergency needs at a time when I will be too far away in time and distance to do so. It was a toss up but her well being easily won out on that one. Still, I'm sure I am due to have plenty of sleepless nights on those rare (?) occasions when she doesn't come home at exactly the time she says she will. Or doesn't go to where she says she will, at least not without a detour or two first because of last minute emergencies that just had to be taken care of first. And I'm sure, she will call me diligently when these situations come up so as not to keep me on pins and needles for too long.  She has already taken to kidding me about the need for a supply of nitroglycerin pills by my bedside just in case shes late. She also offered to provide me with the numbers of every emergency room in a 500 mile radius and then professed she was only kidding.