The Tiny Toes Trifecta

Dear Every Parent of Every Child I Ever Taught,

I am sorry…because I did not have a clue about a lot of things. 

For example:

“Don’t cross the invisible line Mom,” the teacher instructed me.  Elizabeth was crying on our way into her class today.  She didn’t want to leave me. 

Granny crossed the invisible line a few weeks ago.  I believe her reply, just to summarize, went something like, “How lovely that you have a line that I did not know about and cannot see, which symbolizes that a parent must leave his or her child.  You must not have met me before, because I am THE GRANDMOTHER.  Your invisible line not only does not apply to me, it angers me.  Bless your heart for inventing such a ridiculous management technique.”

But I am not The Grandmother.  And I like to follow the rules, most of the time. “Okay,” I replied.  The teacher scooped Elizabeth into her arms and they walked into class.  I started to sweat.  My body temperature spiked to approximately one hundred and ten degrees.  I sat down and pretended to read a book.  But I couldn’t see the words on the page through the dime size tears in my eyes. 

Did I ever do this to a parent in my classroom?  Because I remember invisibly rolling my eyes at parents who walked children to class each day because I was twenty six and knew everything about how to parent a first grader.  “Where is your need to foster independence?” I internally asked my too small to see brain.  So, to every parent I ever invisibly eye rolled, I am truly sorry.  I had no idea.

But today, my little girl was whimpering, “I want you to go with me, Mommy.”  And she wanted me to walk her to class because, for some reason, she felt something that made her cry.  But there was an invisible line that I was not allowed to cross. 

There is probably a good reason for the invisible line.  Just like there was probably a good reason some of my first grade parents needed to walk their son or daughter to class.

So, if I feel the need to walk Elizabeth across the stage on the day of her high school graduation, I need someone to please say, “Don’t cross the invisible line Mom!”

My Libby Lou