What Happens During School

So much of my kids’ early lives happened at home, under the watchful (and exhausted) eyes of me, or their mom. A blink of an eye later, and they’re off to daycare, where the the caretakers tend to file a short verbal report at the end of the day, about what transpired: what they ate, when they were last changed, if and for how long they cried … you know, really consequential stuff.

But then a funny thing happens when they start to go to school: they all of a sudden have little lives of their own. Their schedules are dictated by teachers. Their lunch choices are their own. There is under-the-table snack swapping, contraband candy, fights with friends, jokes told, and, based my brief observation of recess-type activities - an endless stream of small indiginities perpetrated and endured.

When my kids come home from school, barging like a tornado through the front door, full of energy and smelling of fresh air, and attempt to regale me with their stories of what happened that day, my instinctual M.O. us usually to nod uh-huh them so I can continue doing whatever task it was I was doing. But it’s tragic for these rare glimpses of my kids’ lives to be all but ignored, so when I can remember to, I make a point to listen.

And occasionally I write them down - and so should you! Recording and sharing with our kids these ‘hidden’ stories that are mostly inaccessible to us, but occasionally bubble to the surface is all the more important, considering that of all the things that happen at school, they’re the ones that our children decided to tell us.