They call it Kindergarten Round Up in our school district. It is the time when all parents of five-year-old children have to register them for the 2005/2006 school year.
It is a time that I have been looking forward to for quite a while.
Let’s see, if I take our eldest son’s birth date and add in all the years of the other children’s existence, then it will have been 16 years.
Sixteen years since the time when I had no children at home with me during the day.
A person can do a lot of things in sixteen years. A baby grows into a driving-age teenager. A person can go from mid-forties to retirement age.
If you are like me, you can graduate from college and, within one year, get married and have four wonderful boys in just a mere sixteen years.
I can hardly believe it. All those years of diaper changing, bandage wrapping, tears wiping, toilet training and finger painting. Now, I will be sending my last one off to school, full day!
What will I do? Do you know how many columns I could write in a full school day with no interruptions?
I could finally have my nails done at a real nail salon, without having to tell my son to keep his toy soldier out of the pedicure water basin.
I could get my shopping done in record time, without having to stop at every candy display on every isle corner.
Then, reality hits. I will not have a little one to run errands with me, or to ask me what are clouds made of and why are fat babies cute but not fat men?
I have spent almost twenty years nurturing and caring for young boys who will one day be men. I have taught them how to read and write, say “please” and “thank you.”
Now, I will release my last one to the daily ins and outs of school life.
Am I ready? The tears rolling down my cheeks indicate that I might need a little more time.
Thank God it is only February, and I still have six months. I had better cherish it.
Thanks for sharing.