Tomorrow we start the countdown to high school graduation. Class of 2029. The year my twins will leave us empty nesters... And if you only have twins and no other kids, you know exactly what I’m talking about. They will leave us at the same time, on the same day, forever.
Ever since my twins started preschool I’ve been dreading this day. My husband laughs at me and makes fun of me for crying every time I hear the word GRADUATION. I cry when I hear about it, I cry when I read about it, I cry when I watch it on TV. I’m a total mess! The truth is we only have 12 SUMMERS left with our babies. Twelve summers to enjoy as a family, to visit all the places I’ve always dreamt of taking them to. Twelve summers to prepare our kids to become adults we want to be proud of. Twelve summers to learn how to let go.
Letting go is very hard to do. I’m taking baby steps. I’m not what you would consider a helicopter parent, but I also don’t practice detachment parenting either. I’m in between. I let my kids explore the world around them, but I do constantly worry about their safety. So letting our kids go venture in the world of public schools is both exciting and very frightening to me.
We just moved to the Washington DC area from Texas, and I’m excited with the prospect of the young adults they will become by being exposed to such a diverse environment where they will be interacting with kids from all over the world and different socio-economic backgrounds. That makes me very happy because I want my kids to grow up respecting the world around them. The whole world.
On the other hand, I am worried sick. I worry about the possibility that my introverted daughter will be bullied for being a little different from the other girls. And even though I heard wonderful things about my kids’ new school, I also worry about my children being abused. I worry about the one thing nobody wants to remember and talk about when school is back in session, the one thing not even the school wanted to mention during orientation maybe because they didn’t want to scare away new kindergarten parents... Gun violence. I walked around the school looking for signs that they are prepared in case they have to evacuate the school quickly. The signs were there.
Tomorrow my kids will be riding the school bus for the very first time. Preschool years are over. We closed that chapter. Tomorrow we start a brand new chapter in our book of parenting. We’ll be learning how to navigate the school district, how to interact with principals, teachers, school staff and PTAs, we’ll be praying for the school bus to take our kids to and from school safe and we’ll also be praying for the teachers to go easy on homework, or maybe even eliminate it completely so we can enjoy the little time we’ll have left each day as a family. Tomorrow will be tough, but we’ll survive, and we will most likely enjoy some parenting freedom albeit with some guilt, or maybe not. Good luck tomorrow! Make the most of your next 12 summers!