Scrolling through my social media feeds last week i was bombarded with back-to-school photos. On Instagram a photo of a little kid with a wide grin full of baby teeth carrying a backpack nearly as big as himself. A photo of a teenager in a private school uniform with tie and blazer, lapels dotted with prefect and captain badges, entering his final year of high school and standing as tall as his proud father. And there was the Facebook post with four siblings lined up in an ages line; the littlest, entering kindy, stands on the left and the height line slopes up on an angle, ending with the eldest who all of a sudden is no longer a little kid but almost a young woman.
Parents have bought their kids school uniforms that are deliberately roomy, knowing that before the end of the year they will become tighter and shorter as their child grows.
We know that our children don’t stay little for long. At the time, being a parent of young kids is tiring, and it can be burdensome and unrewarding, but these years pass very quickly in the scheme of things.
I’ve added my own (iPhone photo), with feet cut off, of my son and his Dad which was taken before we got in the car for the one and a half hour drive to boarding school.
I’m finding out just how quickly kids grow up. I’m home alone as I write this, with my kids all away. My youngest has just turned twelve, and he started boarding school on Monday, to join two sisters who returned to boarding school as well. His eldest sister has travelled to the other side of the continent to return to a job she loves in the outback.
And just like that, the kids are all grown up!!
Take the photo. Print the photo. Save the memories.