My mother lives in a nearby town about half an hour away. I stay with her one or two nights each week as my office is there and it saves me a commute or two. She’s still in my childhood home (my parents moved there just after my older brother was born). So it always feels like home.

She doesn’t love the busier traffic in my town and avoids it where possible but is coming for a rare overnighter tonight as it’s a public holiday for our show (town fair). And even though I’m 55 years old and probably more pedantic in terms of cleanliness and the like, I’ve been cleaning like a banshee.

So I’ve been pondering this parent child conundrum. Does one ever gets over this desire to please one’s parents? Do you grow (or evolve) out of it? The sane part of me knows my mother won’t judge me because of the state of my place, but nonetheless I’ve been ticking things off my list. Folding a nice towel on her bed and the like.

I recall when I lived further away – not overseas but just in our state’s capital – I’d often ring or message my parents if I was taking a day off sick. Reporting in if you like. At the time I wondered if it was a guilt thing… needing to confess that I was absent (even if I was on my deathbed!) or whether it was something I did because I had no significant other and no one else to share that with.

I wonder how many other things we struggle to let go of, when we (the children) become adults ourselves. And even more so when we start to take on a carer’s role… our roles are reversed?

Is it just me?

** Linking up with the What’s been on your calendar gang, cos I’ve been a bad blogger of late!