6/19/2009 5:25 am
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Today daughter graduates from elementary school. She went to sleep last night in the big bed with me and curled up saying, Mama, I am excited about tomorrow.
You should be. I said. You have worked hard.
We all say these things to our children, You should be proud of your work. But as we lay there I thought about daughters resiliency. She really HAS worked very hard.
She has weathered the separation and divorce of her father and I when she was in 1st grade, and let me tell you the year leading up to that was no picnic.
She has switched schools when I switched careers, and struggled to work her way into an already existing group of girls. She has been emotionally bullied and taunted in a girlie triangulation situation.
Academically, daughter has a little bit of a lot. A little attentional issue, a little right/left confusion, a little visual convergence and tracking issue. Daughter has had to work hard to compensate. But she has done it beautifully. Bringing her strengths to her weakness. Determination, physicality, fairness and a voracious love of learning.
Somehow she seems way, way more grown up than I felt in 5th grade.
Singer, reader, pianist, fashionista, writer, lover of science. Talker. Beautiful, tall and long and wiry. Emotional. Thoughtful. Generous. Shiny.
This is daughter. This is the girl that is becoming the young woman who lives in my house. Through everything she has taken the higher ground. Through therapy, through her talk with us, she has incorporated strategies. Daughter is a survivor. She is resilient. She is a treasure and I am so very, very grateful to get to be her mother.
I am looking at her and petting her head as we lay in the bed. You are a great daughter. I say with maybe just a little tear in my eye.
I think she sees it. She pushes her head against my hand.
Lets scratch backs! she says.
Ok, I say. Me first!
Let's go eat stuff.
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103 posts 6/19/2009 8:26 am |
Beautiful, Vi. Another beautiful post. And a beautiful pic that capture the same vibe.
At the risk of seeming trite or sycophantic, the mere fact that you see all that and appreciate all that about your daughter shows that she's lucky to have you as her mother.
Have a great time at the graduation tonight!
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2841 posts 6/19/2009 1:50 pm |
What Cal25202 said. sometimes our kids succeed in spite of us, sometimes they succeed because of us. It sounds like you have a hard worker there and both of you will make her a success.
Many kudos to you,
S
"Seduce my mind and you can have my body. Find my soul and I'm yours forever."
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546 posts 6/19/2009 6:47 pm |
This (and she!) is lovely.
My mom is 62 and I'm 40 and we still "scratch backs"!
violet915 replies on 6/19/2009 10:08 pm:
mmmm. scratchie backie! |
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