McClellan: First day of school hits differently for grandparents

The beginning of the new school year is a time of strange emotions for grandparents. We look at our kids and we think, Weren’t we just them?

I remember walking my daughter to her first day of school. I understood the significance. We were beginning to lose her to the world.

A short time later, she graduated from high school. We drove her to the campus of the University of Illinois in Urbana. We carried boxes up to her dorm room. I started to cry. Pull yourself together, my wife said.

Four years later, we drove our son to the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I held myself together.

We were done. The hard-core, full-time parenting was over.

We did not fully grasp how quickly it had gone. At least I did not. Very possibly, Mary did, but spared me the knowledge.

The confusing thing ab