Back to School Night

So the other night was Back to School Night at the High school.
This is a ritual I've participated in every September for the last 14 years.
It started when my son was in Kindergarten. It's very exciting. You get to meet the teacher and some of the other parents and you get to see what fun and exciting things your child is doing while they are away from your loving arms for those few (blissful) hours.
A lot of parents dread Back to School night or think of it as a chore. But I've always really enjoyed it. As the kids get older and information gets more sparse coming from them, it was very helpful to have an idea of what was going on in ther lives while they were at school. It also gave me an idea of what kind of teacher(s) they had and what type of work would be expected during the year.
So here we were at another one. But, for me, this one was different. This was our last one. That's right, our baby is a senior this year.
My family (especially Caity) love to tease me when we are watching movies and things get emotional. I can't sniff without everyone looking in my direction and rolling their eyes. They know me. It doesn't take a lot to make me cry. And once it starts, it's really hard to stop.
So back to Back to School Night. The way it works in High School is we report to the childs 1st period class and that's where we get her schedule so we know where to go when each bell rings. So we are sitting in her 1st period class (Spanish 5) with a handful of other parents, waiting for everyone to arrive. While waiting, the school had the graduation ceremony from this Spring playing on the telelvision (each class has a tv) for us to watch. As soon as the music started playing and I saw all of those kids in their caps and gowns, I could feel it coming. My eyes started welling up, my nose got stuffy. All I could think about ws that my baby was going to be graduating in a few months.
So I got up discretely and headed for the kleenex box. Most of the other parents were clueless. They don't know what a wuss I am. For all they knew I have allergies or a cold or something. But not Dave. He looked up at me with the "oh, you've got to be kidding" look. It's true...I am a wuss.
This isn't my first child to graduate. I remember being the same way when Alex was a senior. If I was in Target and saw graduation paraphenelia, I would well up. When he got his senior pictures and had to put on a cap and gown, I welled up. When we had the graduation party at the youth group at church, we were asked to speak about about Alex and I knew I would never make it through so I asked Dave to do it for us (I wrote the words and he read them.) Little did I know he wouldn't be able to get through it, either.
This year feels a little different, though. This is our baby. She is growing up and this time next year, she will be away at college. That is a really hard thing to wrap my mind around.
But that is our job as parents, isn't it? You do the best job you can, hopefully instill your values, teach them as much as you can about life (even though they don't want to listen sometimes) and then send them off into the world.
When we attended our first Back to School night 14 years ago, it seemed like these beautiful children were going to be around forever. It's such a cliche but IT GOES BY SO FAST!!!!
So remember, when you want to ring their necks because they color on your walls or talk back to you or leave the milk out on the counter and it spoiled, that soon, they will be grown and this will all be a memory.