I’m that mom—the one who fights back-to-school with every fiber of her being.
I hate the cheery yellow pencil stickers on Target’s floor that pop up in early July. I despise watching our school’s Facebook page rumble back to life with posts about sports practices and lunch menus. I turn into a cranky, impending-sense-of-doom sort of pouty ogre come August, without fail. Because to me, it feels suspiciously like someone pushing the accelerator of childhood down just a little bit harder, without asking me first.
Of course, no matter how hard I fight it, another school year begins.
Le sigh.
While I was dejectedly scrolling my newsfeed today, I came across this music video from Michael Bublé. It’s a release from March I’m absolutely certain he meant to save for August, when back-to-school moms like me are (sometimes silently) feeling all the feels about their babies growing up.
Have a look (but steel yourself):
Maybe it’s the fact that my oldest cheerfully announced to me today she’ll be in middle school next year. Maybe it’s the fact that I recently watched Toy Story 4 with my family. Maybe I’m grappling with the possibility of never bring another baby home from the hospital in all its mewling, helpless newborn dependency.
Maybe I’m just more of a sap than I care to admit.
Whatever it is, this song—this video—stabs me right where it hurts as I prepare to send my kids back to school.
While our kids are zooming through childhood, busy growing out of childish things and gaining independence, we parents are silently but proudly cataloging every passing day, every new box of crayons, every shiny new lunchbox—until one day, entirely without our consent, the baby we waited for is a baby no more.
And darn it if it isn’t just perfectly stated—we love them “Forever Now”.
Thanks for making me all mushy and mopey now, Michael Bublé. Thanks a lot.