30/08/2026
“I Guess You Know”
Over the past few weeks, Nikeeta and I have reached one of those milestones in family life that always seemed a very long way away – as we know it probably does for some of you right now too.
Our eldest son, has left home to study aerospace engineering in USA. He was our first preschool graduate from our 1st ECE centre in Tauranga way back in 2011.
We are enormously proud of him. We are excited for him, grateful for the opportunities ahead of him, and we know this is exactly what raising a child is ultimately about - giving them the confidence and independence to step out into the world and begin making a life of their own.
But knowing all of that didn’t make the goodbye any easier this week. There is something very strange about spending so many years wishing for your child to grow, learn, become resilient, independent, and develop strong wings, and then discovering just how much it hurts when they actually fly away.
It has made us think a lot about time. About the hundreds of ordinary mornings, bedtime stories, school drop-offs, cuddles, arguments, family dinners, holidays, silly moments and conversations that don’t seem particularly significant while they are happening. And then, suddenly, they become everything.
Many of you are at the beginning or middle of that journey now. Your children are still little enough to need your hand, climb onto your lap or call for you all the time.
There will almost certainly be days when you are exhausted and secretly wish they would grow up just a little faster. We did too. But one day, perhaps much sooner than it seems now, you will find yourself wishing you could have just one of those ordinary days back.
Nikeeta and I found it difficult to put what we were feeling into words, so we did what we have often done throughout life - turned to creative arts and music. We wrote a song called “I Guess You Know”.
It is about all those things we feel for our children but perhaps don’t always manage to say out loud. I composed the music and performed the piano, and Nikeeta and I wrote the lyrics. But we found we couldn’t get through singing it ourselves without becoming emotional (in fact we can't even read the words to our boy without falling to bits), so we had a little help bringing the final vocals to life.
We played it to him before he left. It was one of those family moments I don’t think any of us will ever forget.
We wanted to share it with you, not as anything promotional, but simply because we are part of a community built around children and families - and because one day you might be standing where we are standing now. Perhaps, when that day comes, this song might help you through it as it is helping us get through this week.
Our song is here “I Guess You Know” on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2PtJvHholQNnCh9CBv5aQr?si=9bc06439fa124718
In the meantime,
hug them a little longer.
Listen to the long story they are trying to tell you.
Go to the school thing.
Sit beside them.
Be silly with them.
And whenever you can, give them the thing that eventually becomes the most precious gift of all - your time.
Warmest always,
Darius & Nikeeta
Synthesis by Darius Singh · I Guess You Know · Song · 2026
