Reality

Like any parents, we try to shield our kids from certain things in the world. We know they will be exposed to the real world eventually, but we try to shelter them as much as we can. However, sometimes they see life as it is, in it's fairness and unfairness and we do our best to help them through. Monday was Tyler's first day at school without his dear friend Cole. We anticipated that it would be a difficult week for him. Monday after school, he gave me his backpack and said, "there's important news in there." He proceeded to tell me that the mom of one of his friends in his class died on Halloween from cancer. Whoa. I knew she was very sick but didn't know just how sick and I am so sad for this sweet boy and his dad. His teacher did a very good job of talking to the students about it and the counselor spoke to their class later in the week about it. Tyler is not a talker and I knew he wouldn't want to talk much about this. I also knew that his fear, anxiety and uncertainty regarding a friend's mom's death would come out at some point and we just needed to be ready. Wednesday was the day. After school, he was just angry and upset. Everything was "horrible" and he just kept bursting into tears. Finally, I just picked him up and held him for a very long time. On a normal day, if I tried to do this, he would likely run from me, but it was just what he needed that day. We just focused on one another and I just prayed that his fears would subside. He did acknowledge last night at bedtime that it has been a hard week and he is glad it is over. I imagine that is all he will express about this week verbally. And while this week was understandably hard on the kids in his class, I know all of the parents have struggled with it too and we are all the more thankful for every minute we have with our families.