For a year, my middle son has been going to a half-day of daycare. He’ll be returning to full-day daycare when I transition back to work in the coming month. It’s bittersweet to know that our time with this circle of friends is coming to a close. We say we’ll meet on the weekends, we’ll find time to hang out, but life has a harsh way of moving on.
Spending longer hours at the daycare, he’ll interact with kids of different age groups as they congregate in a single room in the afternoons. I like this aspect of the daycare and think our oldest son benefited greatly from it. Lessons learned from those both older and younger than him.
A silver lining on this moment is that a number of half-day kids in his current class will also be making the transition as their parents also head back to work. It just doesn’t include the two that he bonded with the most since he joined this daycare. The parents that I’m closest also to. We’ve shared a lot of adventures together and the transition is already stirring my emotions.
Amazingly, I think my son has started preparing for this transition already. I see him putting distance between himself and his two closest buds over the past month or so. At the parks after daycare, he has drifted closer to me and looking to kick the ball around or play tag together. He knows that this precious time between us is short. Unthinkable only a month or two ago, he’s perfectly fine to head to a park that no one else is heading to and for just the two of us to play. I’m savoring every moment that I can.
Before work consumes me again, very important to ground myself. Look around at what I’ve enjoyed so much over this past year – spending time with my family – and figure out a way to make that happen a lot more going forward.