Nobody warns you about the goodbyes you have to make as a parent.

They warn you about the sleepless newborn nights. They warn you about the terrible twos and the teenage eye rolls. They give you books about discipline and development. What they do not give you is a heads up about the moment your child doesn't need you the way they used to, and the confusing, slightly embarrassing, but very real grief that follows.

You know that thing you've been meaning to deal with? The email sitting unread, the phone call you keep putting off, the doctor's appointment never made from 2024, the budget you could tackle in your sleep but somehow haven't even opened? Yeah. That thing. It's not going anywhere. And neither, it turns out, is the anxiety attached to it.