We Do Us: A Parenting Mantra

Why I’ll Keep Walking My Kindergartener to School Each Morning As Long as He Needs Me

It was -7 at school drop-off this morning. -7. Wind chill of -24. And still Easton adamantly refused the car drop-off line. “Can’t we just park and you’ll walk me?” he pleaded. “I won’t be able to hug you goodbye in the drop-off line.”

It’s January. We’ve been in kindergarten 5 months. Five whole months that I’ve begged him to start going through the car line at school. Five months that I’ve parked and walked him daily instead — getting to work 10 minutes late as a result.

*First day of kindergarten … when it wasn’t -7 out*

I used to be frustrated about it. WHY can’t he just adjust, I wondered. I waited each week expectantly, thinking this would be the week he’d be ready to try it. And then one morning, his mittened hand in mine, I had an awakening.

Instead of asking WHY can’t he adjust, I asked myself WHY I was so frustrated about it. It’s an extra 4 minutes and 50 steps in my day that clearly mean the world to him. I do everything else in my day to get in extra steps and snag extra time with my boys — so why was THIS something I was making a nuclear issue out of?

*He’s grown up so much since August in many ways … but some things stay the same*

I didn’t have a good answer … something about “should’s” and what the other kids and other parents were doing.

After that moment, I stopped asking and just parked each morning without comment. We’re not other kids and other parents, we’re us. And we do us. Walking a block in -7 temperatures because my child needs it.