The sway of Isaac

For the past four years my oldest boy has had no influence outside of his family, church, babysitter and very selective television screening. Yesterday all that changed. Yesterday Isaac started his first day of pre-school. I didn’t get nervous or bothered until no one called to tell me that he was having a bad time and not getting along with the other kids. Once I realized that he was fine I started to get a little sad. The child that I have loved and nurtured and centered my world around is about to change. I have always dreamed of raising kids that are self-reliant, confident, assertive, cautious, polite and thoughtful.
Last week Isaac started swimming lessons and he proved he was cautious, polite and thoughtful taking time to understand what his instructor wanted and doing exactly that. So Jules and I both dropped Isaac off at the pre-school and within four minutes of us talking to the teacher Isaac started to walk away from us. We called him back and told him to listen, be nice, play well and that we loved him. He gave us both hugs and kisses and walked into his future alone. Yesterday when I picked him up from pre-school he proved that he could walk into a new situation with confidence and self-reliance. When the teacher told me he did just fine and played very well with the other kids I knew that a pacifistic upbringing having never watched 5 seconds of power rangers, yu-gi-oh or any of that other crap he was still thoughtful and assertive enough to stand and play with kids who have watched nothing but junk for years (Jules and I even saw two kids get into a fight hitting and kicking each other). Yesterday began the next twelve years of Isaac developing his own thoughts and feelings. We’ve got several years until he starts to put others thoughts above our own but the process has begun. Thusly now we’re about to begin a real family routine picking out a game night, reading night, tv night and what else we can do to ensure that we his family are and will always be a corner stone he can build his life on.
Today and Thursday he’ll be watched by Jules family, Wednesday and Friday he’ll be back in school. Next week I think he’ll be ready to go full time.
I know that he’ll be fine because Jules and I have never wanted to be the parents that let just let their kids “go”. It’s a bit nerving to be at this point where your child is putting into action the skills and you’ve tried to instill to this point. I’m sad to realize that Jules and I have so far done our jobs right, I would really like to feel like he needs me to give him a few more pointers and help him understand this is a big step. He walked into the situation with out any hesitation and concern. I hear when they leave for college it’s worse.