When I used to drop my son off for a half day of pre-school, he’d try every trick in the book — Dad, I need someone to push me on the swings! — to get me to stay just a few more minutes . . .
One day when I dropped him off for 2nd grade, I was trying to decide as he got out of the car whether to say “Love you” to him because he wasn’t a baby anymore but I still loved him.
Just as I decided I would say it, he slammed the car door and ran off to class.
Now when I drop him off for 6th grade, he says “See ya later” 100 yards from the dropoff point and it’s all I can do to keep him from leaping out of the car while it’s still moving.