Daughters (and Sons) Welcome

I’ve been driving around the East Coast this fall looking at colleges with my daughter. It’s been one of the most exciting experiences I’ve had in years. I’ve enjoyed strolling the quads after 25 years and wheedling our way into dorm rooms and dining halls to check them out. And I’ve loved having my daughter all to myself: sharing hotel rooms, exploring strange neighborhoods, laughing over really stupid stuff at dinner. She’s great company.

I’m becoming acutely aware that she’s got one foot out the door (okay, maybe half a foot.) In less than two years, she’ll be living her life, and I’ll be watching Grey’s Anatomy alone. I just hope that as she gets older we’ll have more adventures together, not fewer. Many Listers did their cool things with their grown daughters, so why not us?

Jan St. John faced her fears with her girls (#50 — Sky Dive and # 37 — Dive Off a Cliff); Ellen Yacoe takes the plunge every year with one of her daughters (#15 — Do a Polar Bear Swim); Alice Falkenstein went under water with her daughter (#78 — Scuba Dive); while Peg Krygowski went coast to coast with hers (#61 — Bike Across America).

If you’ve shaken things up with your daughter (sons are okay, too), I’d love to hear about it, so I can put it on my own list.