For about 13 years now, I have been very blessed. I am one of the only people I know who gets to tell her parenting journey in ink.

I started writing a newspaper column in the West Seattle Herald in the fall of 1997, when my middle child was just a toddler. I did it because I wasn’t feeling creatively challenged in my government job. I decided to write a column to talk about some of the feelings I had, and try to find a community of parents who might be sharing those feelings.

When we moved to the Island in 2001, I continued the tradition. Over the years, my column has run in papers in West Seattle, Highline, Federal Way and here on Vashon. I have talked about letting my daughter go to kindergarten, watching my child go through surgery and experiencing the thrill of coaching or of leading a Camp Fire group. Basically, whatever I felt, I would put it down in the paper.

I have won some awards, and more importantly I have been touched by readers. I have had people tell me at the bank or at the grocery store about how much they loved my column, or were moved by something I was going through. It has been, quite simply, my most wonderful hobby.

Then things started changing. I remember when our oldest was in fifth grade, friends started telling me she wasn’t going to like being written about. Sure enough, she called me off. Since then, I have left many of her life stories alone. Then our middle child made the same request, and I respected it.

Last month, I wrote about my youngest playing football. He informed me, quite clearly, that he had heard about my column. He made it pretty plain that he no longer wants to be column fodder either.

So I find myself with kids who are now 15, 13 and almost 10, instead of the 5, 3 and 1. I find myself looking back on those 13 years and being bombarded by memories. How did it go so fast? How did we move so quickly from a new Vashon family to a family that has lived here for a decade, putting down roots, raising our children (and yes, writing about them)?

These children have grown up quickly, and with the wonderful caring of so many of you who read this newspaper. They have hung out at Sandy’s Store, sold Camp Fire candy at Thriftway and seen opening night movies at the theater. What a fantastic town we live in. What an amazing place to be a child.

But yes, children grow. They become teenagers, and later they leave home. And I guess it is perfectly fine, when one enters the teenage years, to tell your mom to stop writing about you. Heck, it’s okay to tell her to leave you a little privacy.

So, I do want to write again about this crazy parenting journey. But I will tell you stories about our town, about the things we all see, experience and go through, or about issues we face. What I will not tell you about are Emma, Lilly and Will Hennessey. They are just fantastic kids. But I think their mom has to let them grow up in peace.

So that’s my Christmas gift to my children this year. Maybe it’s a Christmas gift to all of you readers who are tired of hearing me play out my life in print.

To me, it feels like a sad ending of a chapter. And that is very bittersweet. Merry Christmas, Vashon. It’s been great taking the journey with you.

— Lauri Hennessey is the director of the Municipal League of King County.