We have successfully navigated our first week with everyone back in school. Yippee! And I learned something pretty early on in the week, something that surprised me, something I wasn’t quite expecting.
I hardly get to see my daughter.
I see her for about 30 minutes in the morning, but it’s not quality time, it’s that hurry-we-have-to-get-up-and-get-dressed-and-brush-our-teeth-so-Daddy-can-take-you-to-school time.
On top of that, all of my teaching and coursework this fall is in the late afternoon/early evening. I get home about 6:15 on Tuesday night (not too bad), but I’m not home at all on Mondays and I’ll be lucky to get home in time to kiss them goodnight on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
I miss my daughter. It’s different with my son, because I play piano with him in the mornings and walk him to the bus stop. We get that individual time almost every day. But I had to figure out a way to get that time with my daughter.
So I had lunch with her on Friday. I told her about it on Wednesday and her reaction to my decision made my heart swell. Little L was SO excited! She talked about Mommy having lunch with her for the next two days. She told her teachers and her friends. She announced it to her brother and her Daddy. And she reminded me about it almost every time she saw me.
I spent about 45 minutes with her on Friday, eating lunch and tucking her in for her nap. It may have been the best 45 minutes I have spent in a long time.
It certainly was the best lunch ever.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
You are such a wise mommy 🙂 I’m glad you got to have some special mommy-daughter time.
In our house that is called a date. I try to have one monthly with my high schooler. When she was little & Daddy was getting his doctorate, he had a date night at least twice a month with her. Those times to connect are so important.
I know the feeling of missing my son when I’m working so much. I try to build in those little dates too – ours usually consists of feeding the ducks on Friday afternoon after I pick him up from daycare. Sometimes we even stop for pizza after!
@JoAnn and @Courtney – I love the idea of calling them “dates”! I have a feeling that this was the first of MANY dates to comes! @Rachelle Aw, shucks…what can I say? I’ve had some great role models 🙂 ~Kimberly
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