Here! (raise hand)

I spent the morning with Olive.  It was Mother's Day Tea.  I don't drink tea, except for the herbal variety, but I went anyway.  I cried during I'm a little Teapot.  Again.  Sheesh.  All the mothers sat in their child's teeny tiny seat while tea and other tea party delights were served.  The mother sitting on my left looked at me and said, Oh, I've never met you before, with clear implications that there are only two weeks of school remaining and how I could possibly have been so absent among the other Kindergarten mothers (?).

I politely laughed and mentioned that I wished I could have spent more time in the classroom. She promptly turned to the mother to her left and ignored me for the rest of tea time.  I enjoyed chatting with Olive as she pointed out various pieces of her artwork throughout the classroom.

Then I was mad at myself for saying aloud I wish I had spent more time in the classroom because it certainly is not true, and for allowing the other mother to momentarily make me feel guilty.  Olive is a gregarious gal of sorts and loves her peers.  And I love that she is and does.

I have chosen to have more children than all of her classmates' mothers.  I am glad, no grateful I have and that I get to stay home with the tiniest of the bouquet.

They will never again be this age where they come running to you when you squat down to their petite height, arms stretched, 

when they'll give you wet kisses on demand, 

or grab both of your cheeks in their pudgy little hands to turn your face to theirs to tell you of important matters on their young mind.

I am content, and really, thrilled, to be their mother, present in the home, if absent in the classroom.






Happy Mother's Day.