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Letting go
Published 6:00am Sunday, March 21, 2010This week, I received something in the mail that, if you asked me about four years ago, I would have dreaded. — a kingergarten registration packet.
Yes, my daughter will be starting school next fall. After five years of diaper changing, feeding, bathing and all the other stuff that goes along with childhood, my 5-year-old has indeed, as everyone had warned me, grown up fast.
Yet, while I miss the days of young sometimes, I don’t have any negative feelings about my daughter going off to school.
There are advantages to having a child grow up, after all. She can feed herself, communicate, go to the bathroom by herself, dress herself, and very soon, will be able to read books herself (though I’ll always be willing to read to her.)
Having her attend school also offers some practical advantages. If she can ride the bus, I can cut back on the amount of events I have to haul her to. Currently, Super Wednesday, as we call it in our house, requires me to drop my daughter off at preschool at 8:30 a.m., pick her up at 11, drop her off at dance class at 11:15, help her get dressed into her tights and leotard and fix her hair, come back at 12:19 and get her dressed back into regular clothing, and drop her off at day care. Whew.
Financially, at least short-term, we should benefit from her attending public school, saving some costs on day care and nursery school. (Yeah, I know, the cost savings will be eaten up by clothing, cell phones, video games, and, ugh, car expenses as she gets older.)
OK, who am I kidding? As I’m writing this, there’s a certain part of me that is experiencing sadness. I want her to grow up, but then again, I don’t. It’s OK if I have to brush her hair, help her get dressed, read to her at night, sing her a song, make up a story and lay with her for a while to get her to go to bed.
Frankly, it’s hard to stay on her developmental pace. I still want to help her do everything. She’s ready to do everything herself.
Someday, I might catch up; maybe when she’s 30 or so.
So I guess my pleading a few weeks ago to have Tiger Woods return for the Masters didn’t fall on deaf ears.
I know my columns now go on the World Wide Web these days, but…
In all seriousness, didn’t anyone really expect that Tiger would have skipped the Masters, especially considering he’s not injured (except his face and his pride, of course)?
There has been a lot of media griping recently about Tiger coming back, and how it’s all contrived, and that he’s a big phony, and this was all pre-planned. As I mentioned before, I just don’t care. He’s not my friend. He’s the best golfer in the world, maybe of all time, and I want to see him play.
Sorry for being selfish about this.
Joel Myhre is The Journal’s general manager. E-mail him at joel.myhre@fergusfallsjournal.com
