Here it is, the first day back to school.
As I sat here surfing the net for a funny or maybe a heartwarming retro image of "back to school" I was inundated with pictures of people's kids heading back to school. One photo diary followed the kid from sleeping in his bed to breakfast to brushing his teeth and combing his hair. Then outside the front door, in the car, outside the school doors, in the hall finding his locker.........you get the picture. I think the photos ended with him crawling back into his bed that night. If you look really really closely, I think you can still see the umbilical cord.
Apparently, many people feel the need to take pictures of their kids on the first day back to school. I have never done it with my kids.....probably because my mom never did it with me. I think I have grown up to be a fairly well adjusted adult without all of the fuss and fanfare that some parents seem to lavish on their children these days. I have seen parents who scrapbook volumes on each of their children. I suppose they feel that there is then some tangible record to show everyone around them just how much they love their children. My kids have memories. Those can never be lost in a fire or forgotten in a move. The carry them with them always.
Sometimes I feel that people who make such a major production about every normal occurance in a child's life ends up doing them a major injustice. In the real world, no one else is every going to think you are as special as your parents do, and kids that are brought up thinking they are just the most special, end up becoming very sad, lonely and depressed when they leave home and realize all of this.
My kids know I love them, but they also know that the world is hard and life can down right suck sometimes. They know that to get ahead they have to work, and that being "special" is not going to get you very far. That is not to say we don't celebrate our children. We do, on a daily basis. By telling them we love them and hugging them tightly. By making meals, buying clothing and by working hard at our jobs to provide a home and food for them. My kids have learned, simply because I have never had a lot of extra money to lavish them with things, that the best gifts are those that can only be held in their hearts, not in their hands.
