There are so many things that probably would not happen if I didn’t have kids. I would have less of an excuse to buy all of the awesome toys “for my kids to play with.” I would spend a lot less time running through water features in playgrounds, and Saturday and Sunday I would not have spent time catching up with one of my former fourth grade students, her mom, and her brother.
I am in St. Louis visiting my parents and had need of babysitting on Sunday. Being the late planner that I am, I left finding babysitting until pretty late. After a few dead ends, I was directed to my former student who babysits for a former colleague of mine. There are many of my former students out there who I would love to see how they are doing. I used to be friends with them on Facebook, but since I had reached out to them, I decided to clear the decks of all but the few who communicated with me. I figure that if any of them are driven to reconnect with their former teacher, I am very findable.
That does not mean I don’t really want to know how they are doing. I bit of me leaves with every student, even the ones that I did not do a very good job being their teacher. I still care about their lives, and it gives me great joy to find out how they are growing as people.
Thus, the chance to catch up with this family and see how this former student, who was an awesome fourth grader, has become an awesome young adult is just thrilling, and it is even better that she got to spend time with my kids. If I didn’t have kids, that would not have happened.
Dadding Ideas 