For some of you, these will be the last days of summer with kids at home before they head off to university.

They will come back, if only to get their washing done, and leave mould-crusted pans under the stairs for you to sniff out once they return to their real life.  In the coming months there’ll be calls for instructions on how to make roast potatoes, requests for cash, and mumbled hungover apologies, but these last days of summer, on the cusp of all that change, are bittersweet.

I’ve written before how 18-year-olds are basically ducklings, just learning to swim, paddling in circles, often going in the wrong direction, occasionally needing rescuing and setting straight.

Parenting ducklings is never easy, and that last summer was, for me, the hardest to get right.

They think they know everything, don’t they?  

Obviously, you know nothing, it being a million years since you were their age. And anyway, it’s all different now. Even if you knew owt back in the day, you’re an idiot now.

(That’s not what I think – I’m paraphrasing.)

It’s exciting and wonderful to see your little ducklings getting ready for their next big adventure. It’s also a little sad.

From the moment they’re born, your kids are trying to move further away from you. All while you’re trying to hold them just a little bit closer. That is never more true than in that last summer.

Mine were all working, saving for Uni. When they weren’t working, they were off with friends or holed up in their rooms dreaming of escape.

I was dreaming of time spent together. A spa day, a wander up the hills, a road trip – something to mark the time between us, the time we had left.

What I got was moments squeezed between festivals or weekends away and shopping trips with friends. Short of hovering outside the bathroom to catch them for five minutes, our time was fleeting and seemed to be running out like sand.

And I didn’t want to make a fuss, or cramp their style, or be one of those clinging mums, but I did end up stamping my foot a little.

I wanted to help with the Uni shopping. I wanted to stress the importance of a good colander, and that lama stacking cups were essential. (Funnily enough, we never discussed £125 wicker hampers as Uni essentials, but then we were in the big Asda, not John Lewis.)

We were all getting used to this brave new world. And you can’t have those big conversations while they’re rushing out the door.

How the tables turned – who knew it would be me asking for one more story, one more episode, one more meal, while my ducklings are dreaming of five minutes peace?

So, make sure you grab your ducklings and hold them tight. Put them in a headlock if you need to (if you can reach, – all my boys were over 6 ft).

Cwtch and squeeze and hug them as much as they will bear and let yourself have time to reminisce and be excited and a little sad.

They will come back, trust me, they’ll be there every 5 minutes once the novelty has worn off. Everything will be bigger and brighter and obviously more fabulous than here. (This too will pass but can be mind-numbingly annoying.)

They only leave home once, ( well, not strictly true,)

But this is an awfully big adventure for you both, so give yourself time to let go.