This morning, I came downstairs to absolute chaos. Miles was crying, Jaclyn was frustrated, and I was left wondering just how things got to this point.
It was shoes.
Today was Miles’s first day of school at Cadence Academy. While he won’t be attending daily until after Labor Day, the new students’ first days are staggered across this week. And, as any mother would, Jaclyn had made sure to prepare Miles with new clothes for the big day. There was just one problem — Miles wanted to wear his normal, extremely beat up pair of shoes. Without them, he was reduced to an uncooperative mess, denying Jaclyn even the joy of getting the essential first day of school picture on the front porch.
Yes, Miles is often disagreeable in the morning and yes, the shoes are fairly trivial, but I thought about it from Miles’s point of view. However excited he claimed to be about embarking on this new chapter, it was still a completely new environment with (almost) completely unfamiliar people. Maybe there was more to his disdain for the new shoes than mere oppositional defiance. Maybe, in the face of so many new things, he just wanted one thing that was familiar and comfortable.
We switched the shoes out. I even coaxed Miles into stepping out on the porch for that picture.
He had a great first day by all accounts, even (I’m assuming) asserting himself as “the bossy one” in class by placing himself at the front of the line.
* On Miles’s First Day of School board, you might notice that his career aspiration is listed as “Spider-Man Web Designer.” I want to clarify that he does not want to be Spider-Man AND a web designer, but rather the person who designs Spider-Man’s webs.
The Perils (& Pride) of Paternity 