Dropping Off, Picking Up
I remember dropping off my first kid. It was early summer — May or June — and parental leave was over, so we transitioned to a child care provider. We were to meet at a park near our house where I would drop off my kid. As I made the short trek, both me and my kid felt something was in the air. I dropped them off, said goodbye and see you later in the day, and walked home. On that walk home, I was emotional. I was letting go after several months at home with our first born.
This was in 2016. Since then, lots and lots of things have happened. I changed jobs multiple times, including some unfortunate layoffs. A major global pandemic appeared, turning almost every person in the world upside down. I got into art. And of course, our second child was born.
Having two young children makes for a busy household. In our case with the second, we could learn from our experiences with the first. And of course this means coming to terms with bringing them to day care with someone else. We balanced this just as well as anyone.
Tomorrow, our second starts school. Friday was our last day with our day care provider. I got out of bed around 8:20 AM, just barely in time to leave at our usual 8:30 AM to start our days (I completely slept in). My partner picked up our second child in the usual way. With that, we finished home care and now will have two children in primary school.
This has got me sentimental. This past week hit me, surprisingly, right in the feels.
One thing parenting can teach you is how to deal with transition and change. One day, you start changing diapers; eventually, you will change your last diaper. The same goes for lots of things with children: putting them in a Jolly Jumper, taking them to play at a playground, dropping them off at school, going on a family vacation.
The deeply mysterious part is that often, you may know exactly when the first time is, but you’ll often never know the last time. I still change diapers occasionally (in the morning) but those days are numbered. We probably have several years left of family vacations, but life can change instantly. For now, I’m still taking kids to the playground.
With home care, I can put a timestamp on exactly when it started and stopped. There was definitely a first time we dropped off our kid, and a last time we picked up our kid. I’m going to always remember the first, and hopefully, remember the last as well.
