Growing Up Too Soon – June 27, 2006
This morning, I was sitting writing in my favorite café. Past me walked
a little boy of perhaps three or four, holding his mother’s hand and
looking very unhappy. Almost immediately, he began crying – that
tearless sort of sobbing that means one’s heart is breaking. While his
mother ordered and waited for her drink, she ignored her son’s wails.
Nobody else in the café could. Two other women, apparently acquaintances
of the mother, asked what was wrong with the child. “He wants to stay
home today,” she said, “but he has to go to daycare. He’ll be fine. You
know, he has just finished preschool and is going to junior kindergarten
in the fall, which is so exciting.” One of the women tried to distract
the little one by talking to him. She told him he was soooo grown up and
asked him if he’d just graduated. He looked at her briefly, then began
pulling his mother toward the door, yelling, “Home.” He apparently
didn’t think it was so exciting to have graduated to another level of
home-leaving.
Perhaps the graduation comment was inspired by an
article in this morning’s
paper. With no irony at all, the piece describes a senior
kindergarten graduation, complete with caps, gowns, diplomas and
ceremony. The parents gushed, the kindergarten teacher spoke of
milestones and becoming independent (turning from caterpillars into
butterflies) as they “graduated” from half-day attendance to sitting in
desks and listening to teachers talk on a full-time basis. The kids in
the accompanying photo look bored already.
But perhaps the most telling comment came from one
six-year-old who said his favorite part of the event was having his mom
there. Too bad so many moms are so eager to push their children away,
under the questionable guises of independence and education.
Posted:
2006/06/27 3:28 PM
