by Annie H. Liko

Created on: November 11, 2008   Last Updated: November 30, 2010

The quietness in the house sends a chilling reminder that we are all alone. It started off with the eldest boy going off to college, followed a year later by the second one. While they give more excuses than we can possibly accept not to come back during semester breaks, we continue to find more solid reasons to get them to come home often and as we wait for the boys, we lavish our attention on our little girl.

But lately, she declines to have her hand held in public places for fear that people might have the wrong notion in their heads; two "girls" holding hands, pleased , she would say. She tells us not to call her "Baby" anymore in front of her friends and I wouldn't blame her for she's already taller than me. She starts demanding more space, starts spending more time with her on-line friends as well as busy exchanging text messages on her cell phone. With her tuition's, revisions and piano lessons, there left only a tiny fraction of her time for us.

It wasn't so bad when the boys start setting conditions of not wanting to be given a hug or a peck on the cheek in public. It wasn't so bad either when they said they will be hanging out somewhere else during the weekends instead of joining us on family outings. It doesn't hurt that much when they jumped into a friend's car as soon as they have blew off the candles on their birthday cakes. It was alright then as we still have our little girl who will happily tag along with us to where ever we want to go during the weekends.

I used to love going to the kids' rooms to tuck them in to bed but by the age of twelve, the boys started locking their bedroom doors and good nights were only exchanged through closed doors. Our little girl has been doing the same thing recently. She will casually bid as goodnight as she climbs the stairs and lock us out of her room.

After school, there isn't much luck either. Once she enters her room, the door will be locked and a glaring "DO NOT DISTURB" sign will be hanging on the door knob. Her room is off limit to us and sometime we hope to have the opportunity to step into her room and have a little chat but when we are greeted by the sign, we will just retreat back to the living room and continue with what we do best, staring emptily at the television set.

Sometimes, we flip through the family albums, reminiscing the good old days when the kids will scream with delight as they enjoy their playing sessions with each other. There used to be so much fun together and once the albums

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