School has been in session for a couple of weeks. The excitement of moving my kid off to college in Atlanta has faded and the normalcy of routine has taken its place. There are a lot of parents like me today. Everything is okay except there is a bit of an empty feeling around us. Sometimes in the high speed world of get it done right now we don't notice it. This morning as I sit alone at my computer I feel it very strongly.

I miss my kid.

I think that's okay for a father to admit. I am sure if he was here right now the circumstances would be very similar, I would be awake and in my office and he would be like the rest of the family sound asleep upstairs. But he isn't upstairs, he is a time zone away.

Maybe that is why this particular advertisement from the folks at Extra Gum struck me the way it did. We all have little things that we as parents have shared with our kids. Those little things become precious memories. To us, the parents, they become the fodder for stories to tell at holiday gatherings and at weddings.

Do our kids find the same essence of unconditional love in these little gestures as we do?

I am trusting with all of my heart they do because my kids are a part of me. As flawed as that is, that's what they have to work with and since apples have a tendency to fall very close to the tree I should rejoice in that fact.

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