So when it was time for my younger daughter's preschool family picnic yesterday, I had to stop and look at my account balance from this week to see if we should go. Sure enough, I was in debt to her.
Earlier in the week I had volunteered to bring some fruit to a "Kindergarten Teacher Tea" at my oldest daughter's school. This is a bit tricky to explain, but I'll give it a shot. She had to go to a neighboring school for Kindergarten last year because our local school is overcrowded (there's the simple version). So at the end of every school year our local school brings over all the Kindergarten teachers from this other school, who are teaching our local kids Kindergarten every year until our new school gets finished (this version is getting longer). They come over after school and sip iced tea and lemonade while saying "hi" to all their former students from the past 3 years.
Okay, moving on. So I'm bringing fruit over and I'm excited for my oldest to get to see her teacher from last year. Since I usually pick up my daughter at the curb in the car, this is a treat for me to be waiting at her classroom when the bell rings. And sure enough, my daughter enjoys seeing us there, and enjoys seeing her teacher from last year. And she enjoys eating all the fruit. In fact, I'm not sure which one of these things she likes better.
Oh well. Best of intentions. But on this one I did get some credit with my oldest, it just wasn't nearly as much as I thought would be deposited.
While this was all going on, my younger daughter is literally standing behind me with her hands in both my back pockets. Which, you guessed it, means her nose is in my ass. But that's neither here nor there, it's just for your visual pleasure.
All these kids mingling around, along with all their parents that are there picking them up and all the teachers, has made for a very crowded space. And she's not at all happy with it, even with a cookie in her hand. So we sit down and get through it all with her on my lap. In the meantime my son decides he wants out of the stroller to play around a little. Which gives me hope that he won't end up being another shy one in our family. When it's time to go, my son decides he wants to push the stroller and my younger daughter decides to hop in and let him push her.
How very symbolic that was, now that I'm looking back at it.
Okay, so we're back to family picnic day at the preschool. For the past month I've had it written on my calendar and I've reminded my husband and so forth. And on Thursday, the day before, I suddenly realize we shouldn't go. The funny thing is, all week I kept forgetting to sign up. I think my subconscious was telling me something.
We've been going every year for 6 years (when my oldest was in school there) but I don't think we should bother this year. I flashed back to the other day at the school where my younger daughter was like glue to my leg. She wasn't crying or anything like that. She was just stuck there, not enjoying herself. Later on she said something about that "thing" not being very fun for her because there were too many people.
And I realized that just because I think we should go to this family picnic, just because it's a nice event and we are invited and we've gone every year, and just because my oldest daughter used to love going, doesn't mean that we have to go. Or that it's what's best for my kid.
So I nixed it. The teacher asked when I picked her up Thursday afternoon if she would see us the next day. I told her that we weren't going, and all my reasoning, and she was fine with it. She even mentioned that since it's not my daughter's regular day at school, she understands not going out of our way to attend it if she's not going to have fun.
Friday morning came and I asked my daughter if she wanted to go. Sure enough, she said she didn't really want to go. Now there's a brilliant idea. Asking her.
When Friday lunchtime came around we instead had a family picnic at home. For the past week she's been asking to have a picnic out in front of our house (usually we eat at the table out on our back patio if we eat outside). So I got out the blanket, made lunch, and she and I and my son had lunch outside. This was much more her speed.
When I asked her if this was better than a picnic at school with all her friends and their moms and dads, she said yes. And when I asked her what was better about it, she said "it's at home".
Enough said.
She may be the one that takes a little longer to fly the coop. But I'm okay with that. I'll keep her under my wing until she's ready to fly.
And she will fly one day. I know it.
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