See you later dear….

Well I sit here in the library of my local Elementary School, yes they do allow homeschoolers in the doors, we aren’t contagious as far as they are concerned (if they only knew). I am coming to you tonight from my daughter’s Daisy meeting. For the uninformed, Daisies is the first level of Girl Scouts. After 2 years as Daisies they become Brownies, for 2 years, and then the final exalted position of Girl scout. Now Jenny being the first girl in the family this is a whole new world, I have had years of Cub Scouts. For the equally uninformed, Cub Scouts is the first level of the Boy Scout branch. They start as Cubbies in 1st grade ( or 6 years old to be more specific) and progress through Tiger, Bear, Wolf, then 2 years of Webelos ( I know crazy right but it means: We'll Be Loyal Scouts).



At any rate, I am rambling tonight, appropriate I guess as I have been totally crazy today, but I walked into the school ( 6:03pm yes, I was late- ugh), and there was a dad picking his kids up from the afterschool YMCA program and there was one lone kid left in the cafeteria. Now, I know that many, many kids are in daycare. In fact more than not I would wager, but…. I admit, I was a bit struck. Today, like most days, I have spent the entire day with my kids. (Yes I know, to many of you this is not a palatable choice, and I myself can wax poetic about the drawbacks of this but,) tonight, I began to realize this thing, that is so often required of families, this…… sacrifice, that happens every day, is terribly sad. I understand that many families have no other choice. Through circumstance, or luck, situation or misfortune, there are many single parents who must work full time to support their families. Other families need both salaries, and some families choose to work to get the extra benefits of more money. But looking at the real life result of day care I was profoundly affected. This child went off to school by 8:30 ( most likely earlier, perhaps as early as 7am) and then had a full day of school, followed by a couple of hours after school , in day care, before being picked up to go home. Maybe 10-11 hours a day spent away form the family. How many hours are actually spent with mom and dad?......three, four? and what gets squeezed into that time? Eating, bathing, homework? On an average week they spend what, 15 hours with their awake child? Maybe 20? Wow. What has happened to our society to where we must outsource our children to other people? Don’t get me wrong, many families do not have another choice, but it doesn’t mean it is not a profoundly sad fact that it is so very common. I may resent my children at times for their demands on my every second; I may complain at the intrusiveness of their ever present needs; I may rue the day I decided it is good policy to try to answer every endless question, but I simply cannot even image handing them over to someone else to do all these things. The day will come soon enough when my children will be off and gone. I want to put that off as long as possible. Children need their parents, and need to be able to learn from them. Childhood is too short to miss out on and once it’s gone, you can never get it back. I feel blessed that I can make the sacrifices rather than making them sacrifice me.