Back-to-school season is right upon us, and if you happen to be lamenting how incredibly fast kids seem to grow up, then you’re in good company: Michael Bublé is feeling a bit sentimental, too.
The Canadian singer and father’s lyrical music video for his song “Forever Now” was released way back in March, but it’s just starting to resonate with parents now, as everyone is launched back into the emotional turmoil of our babies heading off to class.
“Seems like yesterday you opened up your eyes and I recognized your face,” Bublé sings in that very-distinctly-Bublé way that makes you want to sway, then screw up your face, then break down into an ugly cry.
The video makes you want to do just that, too. The whole thing takes place in an empty room that changes as time passes, accumulating the messes and the random belongings of a maturing kid: the crib becomes a bed, the armchair becomes a desk, the scooter becomes a football. The kid moves out. The nest is empty.
To say the least, the video is moving. Bublé could wring tears from a marble statue — if he wanted to — but instead he’s targeted the tear ducts of his parent viewers, who have decided to empty them all over their Twitter pages.
Sending your kid off to kindergarten or high school or college can bring on a very particular sort of heartache. They’re born and then they’re adults, just like that. Suddenly, they don’t need your support as much as they used to. As Bublé sings in his song, “every week goes by a little faster than the last,” until your kid is all grown up, walking and talking and standing at eye-level, a fully-formed human being.
Or as one mother put it, blogging on the website Scary Mommy: “The natural separation as they become more independent, the conflict you feel between relief and sadness that they don’t need you as much, the unexpected realization that this process is harder on this side than it was on the other side — all of those things add up to a unique brand of heartache.”
The comment section under the “Forever Now” video mirrors these feelings— it’s a whole thread of parents commiserating over what it’s like to watch their kids mature and leave the nest.
“As foster parents, our hearts break in a million pieces with each child leaving,” one user wrote. “This is our song, over and over. I am sobbing to hear it.”
And another: “Oh man... wife and I are packing to send our daughter to freshman year in college. Now we are a mess balling out crying watching this.”
And another, from a new college student: “I just left for college and my mom sent me this song saying ‘my song to you.’”
The whole comment section is a breeding ground for the feels. But the video isn’t just about one kid growing up — it’s about what happens after. Near the end, the room is empty. Everything gets packed up into boxes. The lights go dark.
Then, the room is a nursery again.
“I love you forever now,” Bublé sings. “I love you forever now.”
We’re not crying. You’re crying.