My children are 5 1/2 and 7 1/2. And already I’m becoming obsolete as a mother.
My kids had a growth spurt. I don’t mean in height—my poor boy is still shorter than some of the kindergartners when he leaves school through the girl’s classroom. But they’re definitely growing. My kids are their own people. This week, Pie had a dentist appointment and I was told, most definitely, that I should stay in the waiting room and not accompany her in. She’s becoming this sporty little creature, feeling sad that hockey was over, but happy because T-ball, soccer, and lacrosse all start up again soon. She brings home private papers from school from her BFF, Jasmine. She has a BFF. She has announced that there are two boys she has a crush on.
And then Doodles. When Pie had to be at the dentist, Doodles had an after school class, so he simply walked over to the neighbor’s by himself when it was done. He rides his bike around the neighborhood with a friend. He puts himself to bed. He gets himself up and dressed in the morning. He calls Tab himself when he wants to play with her. He can change a roll of toilet paper. Recently, it was a gorgeous spring-like night, and my two were simply gone. They left the house and I didn’t see them till it was dark, except for my occasionally peering out the window to see if I could find them. They teemed up with four other neighborhood kids and played basketball in another neighbor’s backyard. When they were hungry, they came home. I didn’t even mention that it was a half hour after bedtime.
I read the entire Little House series to my kids. In These Happy Golden Years, I found myself teary as Laura and Almanzo marry and Laura leaves home. “I’m going to move with you,” I confide in my kids, and while Doodles rolls his eyes, Pie grabs my arm happily, as in “Of course you will.” But, of course I won’t. And she’ll be grateful for that.
But for now, I still relish their childhood. And there’s still plenty of it left. The boy will still, almost without thought, grab my hand as we walk home. The girl still crawls into our bed late at night. And they both still love for me to read to them. The two are currently in competition to see who can memorize the Four Questions in Hebrew because they both want to be the one to say it at our seder. Pretty soon, my youngest won’t be so young anymore and they’ll try to pass the job off onto someone else.
Sigh.
