I found my elder daughter's blog...

Not that it was really that hard. I knew her email address, and I knew where she hosted. Slap the one onto the other, and there's your URL!

What is hard is knowing her loneliness. To be honest, I already knew about it, but hearing it in her own words is heartbreaking. It cannot really be helped; at nineteen, it can be very difficult when there is no boyfriend. Where do you go when you feel like you need to share your heart, and there is nobody around who has deemed you worthy of letting you do that?

Alas, it is not a situation that is likely to get much easier. I don't know what is wrong with a lot of guys these days, but they seem to have switched off the emotion chip. I've even heard guys bandy about the phrases "romantic marketplace" and "market value" when they talk about what they want, as though relationships meant transacting business. I remember how many guys I knew, when I was that age, used women - and were clever enough to hone their sales pitch so that they never knew what hit them.

I don't entirely know how to help, really. I have to be encouraging, I know, but there has to be some limits there, too. The parents cannot always be the pal, and I know I've got to stay on the case about, you know, look for a job, do your homework, pay your loans. :-)

I just try and take the whole parenthood thing one day at a time. it will all turn out fine. I've tried not to fret about the usual parent things (picturing your kid getting the nobel prize vs. sniping from the clock tower) and just focus on what can be done today. And then I just hope that inspiration hits me. ;-)