Is it wrong as a parent to want a little drama? A little upset-ment? A little kicking and screaming and \u201cWhy world?!? Don\u2019t make me go!\u201d<\/p>\n
Is it wrong to think that starting 6th grade \u2014 this major milestone, this turning point in the lives of the Thompson household, this big new, adventure \u2014 shouldn\u2019t be so easy? <\/p>\n
Or is that kind of selfish?<\/p>\n
Because the first day of school \u2014 of middle school! \u2014 was pretty anticlimactic. Downright dull, and even un-eventful. It felt a bit like every other day. <\/p>\n
And it shouldn\u2019t \u2026 BECAUSE I DIED A LITTLE INSIDE!<\/p>\n
MY BABY IS GROWING UP, PEOPLE! (And she doesn\u2019t seem to mind.)
\n<\/p>\n
All summer there was anxiety about this big switch from elementary school. We weren\u2019t allowed to talk about it. She had a gag order from a local judge preventing any discussion of middle school within a 30-foot radius of her. \u201cDON\u2019T TALK ABOUT IT!\u201d she would demand. \u201cYou\u2019ll ruin summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just said I dropped my pencil,\u201d I would reply.<\/p>\n
But by the first day, it was a different story. Maybe Sebastian Middle School did too good a job acclimating students with all the open houses and orientations. New students arrived already knowing their hallways, their classrooms, their teachers, where their books went, what friends were in what classes, even whether the bathrooms had paper towels or those jet-blast dryers. <\/p>\n
Way to go! Thanks to this proactive, caring and downright smart approach, there was zero kicking and screaming at drop-off. No major trepidation. No cries of, \u201cFather, mother, please take me with you! I love you so much and cannot bear the thought of being separated for even one moment!\u201d<\/p>\n
Car door opened. \u201cOK, see you later.\u201d Car door closed. <\/p>\n
And it was over. \u201cDid that just happen?\u201d I asked my wife. \u201cLike, I mean, that\u2019s it? She\u2019s a middle schooler?!?\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an odd-feeling driving off. And it dawned on me: It doesn\u2019t get harder. Not for them, at least. It gets easier. They can\u2019t wait to get out of the car. They don\u2019t need us as much. They don\u2019t fear the world like they used to, or expect us to make everything right for them. <\/p>\n
There used to be hugs goodbye on the first day. Tears even. <\/p>\n
But not middle school. One day I dropped her off too early and the doors to the school hadn\u2019t even opened yet. I apologized before she got out: \u201cHey, I\u2019m sorry I messed this up. You fine hanging out – \u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOK, bye. See ya!\u201d and the car door slammed. <\/p>\n
Yowza! <\/p>\n
As I drove around the drop-off circle, I peeked over to see where she would go. Would she be alone? Look lost? Feel abandoned?<\/p>\n
Little stinker found a friend and was already chatting it up. Extra hangout time! <\/p>\n
My baby is growing up, people. (And she doesn\u2019t even seem to mind.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is it wrong as a parent to want a little drama? A little upset-ment? A little kicking and screaming and \u201cWhy world?!? Don\u2019t make me go!\u201d Is it wrong to think that starting 6th grade \u2014 this major milestone, this turning point in the lives of the Thompson household, this big new, adventure \u2014 shouldn\u2019t be so easy? Or is that kind of selfish? Because the first day of school \u2014 of middle school! \u2014 was pretty anticlimactic. Downright dull, and even un-eventful. It felt a bit like every other day. And it shouldn\u2019t \u2026 BECAUSE I DIED A LITTLE INSIDE! MY BABY IS GROWING UP, PEOPLE! (And she doesn\u2019t seem to mind.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571,561,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2017-nutshells","category-family","category-parenthoodandchildren"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1631"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1633,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631\/revisions\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}