Alarm clocks that had sat silent since late last May, suddenly rang to life early this morning jarring kids out of a deep slumber and forcing them to face the reality that their three month period of hibernation has ended
It’s back to pencils, books and teacher’s dirty looks.
In a few homes, the start of another school year is a joyous occasion..and not just for the parents. My second oldest granddaughter, Allison, for example, loves school and is looking forward to the start of her senior year at Washington.
Grandsons, Michael and Tucker are just starting high school and, I imagine, excited about the prospects of meeting high school girls who suddenly became more interesting over the summer..about the same time as when their voices mysteriously dropped a couple octaves from soprano to baritone.
But there were mixed emotions in the Lincoln, Nebraska home of daughter Suzan and her husband Joe, this morning.
Here’s an excerpt from an e-mail she sent.
Hi! We successfully navigated our first morning of kindergarten!! Zoey was excited and not much concerned, after all, she’s been heading off to "school" for awhile now. She’s blissfully oblivious to the milestone it is for Mom & Dad – especially Mom! She headed into school with her friend Makenna without even a hug or wave to her somewhat anxious parents. She later waved as we peeked into her classroom…no, we were not the only parents doing this with cameras out recording the momentous occasion. I only shed a few tears and not in front of the grown up girl sitting at her spot with her soon-to-be good friends. I spent the next 30+ minutes in the parent area with other kindergarten parents asking all kinds of questions, but mostly just absorbing the shock of starting our babies on the journey of school. How did this happen so fast?!
Perhaps some of you are asking that same question today having reluctantly let go of your little ones hand so they can scamper off to school leaving you in the dust with tears in your eyes.
It’s just the first of many life journeys they’ll now be taking without you there to guide and protect them.
I wish I could tell you it gets easier to let go when they get older but…well, you’ll find out when the time comes.Zoey Josephine Moser age five going on 18
