You can miss a younger version of your child without asking the present one to return to it.

Missing who someone used to be is not disloyalty; it is what love does with time. The difficulty starts when the missing leaks into behaviour, into the nickname they have outgrown, the story retold in front of their friends, the small disappointment when they choose differently now. They then have to manage your nostalgia on top of growing up.

Let the ache be yours to carry rather than something they have to answer. Look at the person in front of you this week and find one thing to admire that only the current version could have done.