Hi, my name is Kelly and I write about being a dad. Let me tell you 
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Bathroom Stall
Alleke ran ahead of me down the echoey hallway, and I helped her push open the swinging door into the men’s bathroom. Before I could say anything she had closed herself in one of the stalls and said, “I can do it myself, Daddy.” I watched from the outside as the small medal disk next to the door latch rotated and locked into place.
“You just locked the door,” I said in astonishment. I was a little miffed. “I can’t help you until you unlock the door again,” I warned her.
As I paced back and forth in front of the bathroom stalls listening to Alleke cheerfully singing “En la granja de Pepito,” I realized that on the surface level I was more than happy to do nothing and let my daughter do her business by herself.
On a much deeper level, however, I realized that my daughter had just closed me out of another little compartment in her life. “I can do it, Daddy,” Alleke would say about something we were doing together, and that meant she didn’t need me to help her anymore. I needed to let one more little bit of her go.
Someday when she was older, I thought, she might only come to visit me once a year if I was lucky. (So sorry Mom and Dad for being that son!)
With two little kids at home, my life is a grocery cart full of responsibilities. I’m relieved when Alleke can do something for herself because it means more freedom for me. But, as my parents like to say, “Enjoy these years while they last, because once they’re gone, they’re really gone.”
MORE ON: alleke, dad, kids, parenting
3 COMMENTS
I really know this feeling.
And what always gets me is that you mostly never know when you are doing something for them for the last time.
February 7, 2010 at 11:06 pm
grow so fast! she's perfect
February 9, 2010 at 1:49 amLEAVE YOUR COMMENT
The Dotterel said...
And they're gone so quickly, too. Still, on the plus side, there's always another phase once one is over. Never a dull moment, as they say…
February 7, 2010 at 6:59 pm