This has been an awesome week at school. I have loved everything about our State of the School, parent meetings, basketball games, wrestling match, Homecoming speeches, chapels, Spring Term meetings, and on..and on…and on. I consider it a HUGE privilege to partner with our parents to invest in the lives of their students. In fact, just today I was sharing with our Upper School parents the necessity of taking advantage of every day with their kids.
From the moment a child is born until they head off to college, parents have approximately 7,000 days to navigate with their children under their wing. EVERY one of those days matter. I was reminding our parents of that today when I was telling them how much we appreciated the opportunity to partner with them in the grand adventure of educating their child. And…in that conversation, I was reminded of what an amazing thing it is to be a parent. I am so grateful for our daughter and today I had a chance to prove that to her.
Because of the snow last week and the need to pack the schedule tight this week, I’ve been out pretty late each night this week. I’ve eaten dinner with Clint and Emma two nights, but it was a brief time of catching up, wiping Emma’s face, and thinking of what I was headed off to next. It was a good opportunity to check in, but definitely not quality time.
Today I had parent meetings at 8am, 2pm, and 7pm. Originally I was just planning to stick around this evening before the 7pm meeting to get a few things done in the office. However, I realized that by doing that…I’d be trading it for one of my 7,000 days with Emma. Faced with that realization, I knew I could catch up in the office tomorrow. It was far more important for me to make sure Emma knows that she matters to me.
I rushed home after the 2pm meeting and picked her up from her preschool. She was shocked to see me way earlier than the normal pickup time and was overjoyed when I told her we were going to grab ice cream. I mean..really…before dinner??! It was awesome! I got chocolate ice cream with butterfingers mixed in. Emma got vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. It took forever for her to eat hers because she likes to chew up each sprinkle individually. But…the good news was, it didn’t matter. There was no where else in the world I had to be…my afternoon was dedicated to having ice cream with my daughter. She got it all over her face, on her shirt, and on my pants. No worries…that really is the best way to eat ice cream anyways!
We had a great time. I did have to rush out right as our family finished dinner, but I am so glad that I took some time this afternoon to just hang out with my daughter. Before I know it, she’ll be heading off to college, meeting some boy, getting married, and moving away. I better grab all the ice cream dates I can get! I like how I used today’s allotment of time out of the 7,000 days!