I was picking up my son early from school recently to take him to a dentist appointment, arriving about 20 minutes before the pickup line started. I am never inside his school at this time of day so I do not know the routines, rhythms, and timing of the end of day preparations.
His school is sacred ground for me. When I walk through the doors, I feel such a reverence, awe and respect for children, their development, and unfolding. It is steeped into every ritual and every routine. A shared and aligned focus of engendering independence and community and kindness. I have always joked that I wanted to stay when I dropped him off and be in the classroom all day.
This space feels safe to me. Supported.
As I figure out my sea legs as an always solo parent, I am feeling my way for that energetic address of clear, kind, firm boundaries to hold space for growth while supporting independence, connection, and confidence (for us both). And I needed a model I could feel in my bones and in my being.
This is not the way I was parented. I was parented with rigidity, discipline, authority over, fear. I am choosing a different way.
His school has been a place that has reflected back to me what my instincts and knowing illuminate for me. I see there what this different way looks like in action. And being there has helped me feel sturdy and in community as I walk this path.
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