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The wisdom of Dory.

They say that with great works of literature you need to read them once every decade. I guess that is because you get different meaning out of them at different stages of your life. My grandfather once told me that he read "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain every 10 years or so, and was surprised at how much more complex it got the older he got.

Well, the same might be said for children's movies.

The good ones, at least.

Over the weekend we held our first-ever family movie night where my husband and I sat down and actually watched a full DVD with my daughter. Now this may not seem like such a big deal to many people, but I will be honest, I loathe most contemporary children's movies.

Fortunately, my daughter Annie chose "Finding Nemo," a movie I had seen and enjoyed in the theater when it was first released in 2003. Back then, I recall being especially moved by little Nemo being taken from his father and the father's quest to find him.

This past Saturday night, I cried like a baby throughout most of the movie.

My husband kept looking at me with increasing alarm.

"Are you OKAY?" he whispered at one point.

Long after Annie was in bed asleep, he pressed me again about why Nemo had struck a chord with me this time.

I did not have to think long.

When I first saw the movie, our daughter was only 8 months old, a baby who spent most of her time held in our arms. The scary world was something we were able to protect her from for the time being. Now with kindergarten only a few months away, Nemo's first day of school and father Marlin's anxiety resonated on a whole new level with me.

Of course, the whole premise of Nemo is that as a parent you cannot protect your child from the big, bad world. All you can do LET GO, as Dory so poignantly tells Marlin when they are in the belly of the whale.

"But how do you know everything will be all right?" Marlin asks.

"I don't!" Dory screams.

An apt metaphor for parenting today.