Blogging About Parents Who Love Their Children

My post today was inspired by Gutsy Writer.  She is trying to decide whether to send her son to military school. My daughter attended an all girls private boarding school/day  high school and forged some wonderful friendships while she was there. She also got an exceptional education. While many girls were boarders from all over the United States, my daughter was a day student. We were lucky to be able to afford the tuition as a day student. The tuition for a boarding student would have been impossible for us financially.  What made us decide on a private school? In ninth grade, my daughter was a cheerleader in the public high school she was attending. She was a straight A honor student but we became concerned about some of the influences she was being exposed to. For that reason, we made the decision to put her in private school and have never regretted it. But that isn't really what this post is about.

While I was reading Gutsy Writer's post today, I remembered a young lady from New York city who  was in my daughter's high school class. She was a boarder and was just a little waif of a thing. Like my daughter, this young lady is an only child. Unlike my daughter, this girl came from a very wealthy family. Whenever my daughter attended banquets, ceremonies, or any other school function where parents could attend, hers were always nowhere to be seen. Her mother was very involved in social and community affairs and according to the girl, always had something else to attend or somewhere else to be. Her father's business evidently took him all over the world. I took this girl under my wing and always invited her to sit with us whenever we proudly attended something at my daughter's school. I could tell the girl really appreciated it but I also saw the wistful sad expression in her eyes when she would explain again and again why her parents couldn't attend.

I wondered if I would ever meet these phantom parents but finally, after three years, they showed up the night before graduation. The mother was very fidgety at a dinner honoring the graduates and excused herself early to make some phone calls. I heard the girl urge her Mom to stay but she insisted that she really needed to get back to the hotel to take care of some things. My heart went out to that poor girl as I saw the disappointment written all over her face.

When I got home, that young girl was on my heart. After a couple of days, I dug up a story by an unknown author that I had in a file at school and I mailed it to those parents. The story is by an unknown author.

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While at the park one day, a woman sat down next to a man on a bench  near a playground. "That's my son over there" she said, pointing to a little boy in a red sweater who was gliding down the slide. "He's a fine looking boy," the man said. "That's my son on the swing in the blue sweater." Then, looking at his watch, he called to his son "What do you say we go,  son?"

The boy pleaded, "Just five more minutes, Dad. Please? Just five more minutes?" The man nodded and the boy continued swinging.

Minutes passed and the father stood and called again to his son. "Time to go now?" Again, the boy pleaded, "Five more minutes, Dad. Just five more minutes." The man smiled and said "Ok".

"My, you certainly are a patient father" the woman responded.

The man smiled and then said, "My older son was killed by a drunk driver last year while he was riding his bike near here. I never spent much time with him and now I would give anything to have just five more minutes with him. I've vowed not to make the same mistake with my younger son. He thinks he has five more minutes to swing. The truth is, I get five more minutes to watch him play."

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If you read my last post, you already know that I am not always sensible. I attached a note, unsigned of course ( I am a wimp) telling the parents how many times I saw the hurt in their daughter's eyes at all the functions they missed the last three years because they didn't have time. I asked them to read the story by the unknown author. Did they read it? Who knows? I sure hope so.

As a teacher and a parent, I love to look at the blogs of young parents who obviously take great joy in their children. I share the joy that I see in the faces of my students' parents who obviously love and cherish their children.  Isn't it a shame that all parents don't realize what a gift they've been given!!!!