AS IT NEEDS TO BE

It was day three of walking my son to school in the morning.

‘Do you have to walk me all the way to the front?’, he asked as he sped up his pace.

‘Yes’, I replied as he hurried through the front door. In the end, none of this ‘punishment’ mattered as he somehow still managed to be late to most of his classes these past three days.

He just got his phone back this morning, a week after having had it taken away. He didn’t seem to care much when it was gone, as it appears he had found other ways to communicate to friends via his laptop. When I found out he was late, I texted him about the next step I would be taking. A personal escort to walk him to his classes.

‘No please I will get to classes’, he pleaded with me for that to not happen. It was something far more embarrassing than having his mother walk him to school. He then stated that the hallways were really crowded. That was something I could believe, as I have seen videos which one of my daughter’s took of a typical moment in high school. But other students somehow managed to get to class on time.

‘I’ve already given you plenty of chances’, those words sounded familiar and were not ones I wished to say to my son. I wanted him to learn a lesson, but this was not the way.

At this point, he will have to figure it out on his own. Just as he will in adult life. As parents, we try our best. Sometimes we think it’s not good enough, when in reality it is just as it needs to be. We need to accept that there will be times we need to let kids fail so that they can learn lessons on their own.