6 More Summers

As I have readied my little man for 6th grade, I realized I have only 6 more summers!

6 more summers of my young mans life and he will be leaving my nest empty once again. I can assure you though as much as I am so Blessed by him I will not fill my nest again with a little one.

I am not sure what it is about a new school year but there is always an emotion attached.  A mom sends her first born to Kindergarten, another mom sending her first child to High school, another to college.  What is the real emotion that ties us all together?  Is it change we are oppossed to? Is it a love so strong we don't want to share them? Is it hard to trust them into the hands of others?

I have never been the mom that said "I can't wait until school starts again" I enjoy the relaxed schedule that summer brings, the lack of routine and deadlines.  I like, that for those few months my children are learning from me. It isn't math I am teaching them at least not directly, or science or history.  I am teaching them about life, and love, and patience, and family.  About compromise, decision making and choices as well as consequences.

Tomorrow as my last bird boards the bus for 6th grade I will feel overwhelmed as we begin another year of learning and say goodbye to another summer, leaving us with only 6 more summers.

It seems like a lot of time yet but when you put it into perspective it is no more than 1 1/2 yrs, or 18 months, 540 days of summer that he will be under my care.  Sure he will still be our son, he will come home from College, but decision making will be his, career choices, next steps, the direction of his life will be his to decide.  It makes me realize how important these next 6 summers are for us. 

Our Children are a gift from God, so wherever you are in sending your child off to school, be it Kindergarten and you still have 12 summers left with them, cherish each day you have with them and as your summers dissapear may you feel like they will leave the nest with 12 summers of education, Love, and the desire to return to the place where summer memories were made and a lifetime of learning was had.6