A mother has written an emotional letter to her son as he finishes up at secondary school. 

Úna Clifford’s son Seán is graduating on Sunday after 14 years of ups and downs in the education system. 

Amid so many competing emotions, Ms Clifford decided to use the "bittersweet" opportunity to reflect on how their relationship has evolved during his schooldays. 

“Well, it’s a big change,” she told Newstalk Breakfast. 

“The operational role of a parent will change as such once he leaves the school system and I just wrote the letter.” 

'Always there for them'

She recalled how she held his hand as she dropped him off at school for the first time as a “needy” little boy and how she wept on the way home. 

Slowly, he began to need her less and less; now she is “no longer [Seán’s] world” and that is “how it should be”. 

“Lord, I’d say now if I didn’t see him for a couple of weeks there’d be no problem,” she said. 

“It’s a lot of change and I thought it might resonate with other parents - particularly at this time… You have to let them go and you have to let them find their own way.

“It’s important to do that but with the proviso that they know you’re always there for them if they need you.

“But they need to find their own way in life at this point and move on from you.” 

Ms Clifford said parents “definitely struggle to let go” and feels that is understandable. 

She is looking forward to celebrating Seán’s graduation - which she thinks is more of a “palavah” than it was back in the day.

Main image: Mother and son. Picture by: Alamy.com