I blinked

There’s a clip doing the rounds on social media that features Matt Damon appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Jimmy asks Matt about his kids and Matt tells him that his daughter, Isabella, is about to go to college.

“They grow up so, so fast. I remember working years ago, and my old friend who’s retired now… I had my then-one-year-old in my arms, and he said, ‘Don’t blink, Matt Damon,'” he tells Jimmy.

“And at the time we weren’t sleeping through the night. I was like, ‘What is he talking about?’ Now they’re going to college.

“I blinked.”

I blinked too. Dammit.

I have one kid at uni and another applying to attend next year. One living out of home, one yearning to leave.

And it happened scarily fast.

I was devastated when the youngest moved out in February. I cried buckets.

I wish she lived closer so we could see each other more often. In the past few months I’ve only caught up with her twice for just a couple of hours.

I’m trying to entice the kids away with me for a mini-break together next year.

But I can’t wind back the years to when they were completely mine and tightly clasping their little arms around my neck for goodnight hugs.

How much would you give to pop back in time to tell one more bedtime story and get one more of those goodnight hugs?

Song of the day: Matt Damon and Jimmy Fallon “Sweet Caroline”