Wednesday with Walt: Master of Sneakiness

With my youngest child graduating last week, I have been on an emotional roller coaster. I feel rather like Marlin in “Finding Nemo” or James in “College Road Trip” in that both of these dads had to learn lessons in letting go and letting their children grow up. Being a very hands-on mom I often find myself struggling with what I know in my mind versus what my heart says. Josh being the baby has magnified this battle of wills. I think it is important for young adults to figure out things for themselves and they sometimes must learn the hard way. Still, I absolutely love this story that Lillian Disney told about Walt and I think he definitely had the right idea.

Walt wanted his girls to “reach” for what they wanted. He wanted them to develop a level of independence. Still, he wanted to make sure they were safe while doing itJ.

In the early 1950’s, when their daughters were around my son’s age, the family was in New York. According to Lillian, the girls begged their father to take them to Washington D.C., but Walt flatly refused.

“If you want to go,” he said, “go ahead. But I’m not going with you.”

They asked him when and how they might go.

“Suit yourself,” he said testily. “You’re old enough to think for yourselves. Go down and ask the porter; he’ll tell you about trains.”

Lillian recounted, “Wide-eyed and nervous never having traveled alone, the girls trooped downstairs. And do you know what their father did? The minute they left the room, he called the porter and told him exactly what he wanted done. Then he called the hotel in Washington and gave explicit instructions.”

In 1952, Walt took Lillian, Diane, Sharon, a niece and a friend of Diane’s on a splurge trip to Europe and he followed much the same procedure.

The girls had the time of their lives, of course, and they never even knew Walt had done that until an article was published in The American Magazine in August, 1955.

Letting go is a good thing, but I can certainly understand the sneaky manner in which Walt took care of things. Maintaining our peace of mind while our children are “reaching” is worth an awful lot to a parent. I wouldn’t be surprised if I soon felt compelled to follow Walt’s lead and ‘allow’ a similar type of trip myself.

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