I think it would be safe to say that every mother has an idyllic vision of how her children will turn out when it comes to the choices they will make and who they will become. Many think the hard years of mothering are when kids are young and require a lot of time and energy.  However, mothering dreams rarely turn out the way one thinks they should and the energy required to stay engaged in your children’s lives doesn’t stop once they are able to dress and feed themselves. Sometimes the hardest part of mothering comes in watching your adult children choose very different paths than you would have chosen or dreamed for them.  But just because your children choose differently than you had hoped doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy them and be close to them.