Ohhh I love my son. Nobody doubts that. I'm also extremely protective and even though I'm the Dad that does let his son get more adventurous as he gets older, I also pack band-aids, creams, neosporin, bandages, ice, and drinks everywhere I go JUST IN CASE!
Every parent at my son's school knows who I am. Heck, every student knows me as well. I show up early and sit on the playground and I am the last one to leave. Long after every teacher and we are almost always the last students in the car as well. I sit and watch so my son can play and run with his friends that are waiting on their parents to show up to get them after school (we don't have school buses here). Last year one parent told me that her child had told her that I was the best parent in the entire school because I didn't "tell them what to do". I just sit, watch, observe, and when it is time to go...we go.
After all, it is only about 10 minutes out of my day that makes my son feel special about who his Dad is. On top of that, my son gets some exercise and I get to spend time just watching my son interact with other kids. Amazing time.
This year my wife was moved to be in the same school as my son and that has created all kinds of problems. Mostly:
1) Mom wants to go straight home after school
2) Son wants to stay and play after school
So we have a deal. Every Monday my wife has a Teacher's Meeting so I come and pick up my son from school. We normally beat my wife home by about 3-4 minutes but it seems like The World to my son. Every Friday I pick him up from school so my wife can come home and relax a few minutes before we get home.
Last Friday I had to go to 2 banks before they closed (one bank I was 30th in line, the next I was 32nd) and my wife didn't want to wait on him. She is hugely pregnant and uncomfortable and has been on her feet all day. My son was NOT happy.
Today, Monday, I show up to get my son. My wife tells me that the don't have a teacher's meeting today but she promised my son not to tell me, so I would come and stay so he could play. And that is exactly what I did.
30 minutes of 4-8 kids kicking around an empty bottle of water like it was the most heated match of all time! There were "fouls", pushes, shoves, yelling matches, a lot of sweating and yelling, and after every GOAL there was a 2nd grader running across the playground yelling GOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL as loud as possible.
And I just sit and watched. Observed. You can learn a lot from a group of Second Graders.
