Parents Again

One thing I notice, being a member of the Booster club for the local high school, is that many parents do not participate in any of their kids school activities. You have to beg to have participation to help out at the snack shack for games, or stuff envelopes, or whatever. I find it amazing that parents can't devote 10 measley hours of their month to the extra curricular activities of their kids. Why is that? What is the priority?

Maybe I feel differently because we couldn't have children. I do have a son, and although we adopted him at an older age, when the opportunity came to be involved in his school activities, we moved heaven and earth to do so. One of us was always at his little league games, we attended back to school and open house, we chaperoned trips, we didn't want to miss out of a second of his school years because we knew there would come a day (like now) where we'd be shut out due to his growth and life choices. I don't regret ever blowing off work to participate in his school days. I miss those days horribly. I can still see him looking to see if we're there and catching our eyes, smiling and then focusing on whatever it was he was doing. He needed to know we were there in some way.

I so wish there was a way to communicate to these parents that "these are the days of their lives" to quote a Queen song. Don't let them slip through your fingers. Get involved in the Booster club and school activities and what your kid is doing. For God sake, make sure to read your kids "My Space" page and know that they're involved in. Don't let the one precious thing you have slip thru your fingers. Money comes and goes, homes are bought, sold, lost, jobs can be replaced...but that first home run, the shared feeling of wining or losing a game, the feeling your child gets taking you to each of his classes for open house...you can't get that back. Once it's done...it's gone forever.