The other day, my daughter asked that I meet her at school with our dog at the end of the day to walk her home. I rearranged some things I had on my calendar and walked over to the school with our furry child. Our daughter has only a few weeks left of elementary school (it goes through grade 8 in Saskatchewan) and will start high school in the fall, so of course, I jumped at the chance to walk with her, even though she would have been happy if the dog could’ve met her there without me.
My wife and I are running out of days like this. Not only is our daughter’s high school not going to be within walking distance, but even if it was, she likely won’t want to be seen walking with us. She still wants to golf with us, watch TV with us, and even run some errands with us (usually because she wants something, but still). I can’t imagine this will last.
She’s sarcastic and snarky, two traits she comes by honestly given who her parents are, but overall, the first few months of her being a teenager have been pretty good. I’m not going to kid myself into believing that it will always be like this. When she was born people asked, what she would call my wife and me. I explained that my wife would be Mom and I would be Mommy, and when our daughter grew out of Mommy I’m sure she’d have some other choice things to call me.
For now, I’m treasuring our golf games, getting ice cream together, and having the privilege of walking the dog to meet her at school. I’m going to enjoy these moments for as long as I can.
