A change for the better...

As parents we are called upon to make thousands of choices for our children over the course of their lifetime.

What time do they go to bed? Who will their first friends be?  Will eating puppy chow cause permanent damage?

This year I made a choice regarding my kids’ education, a choice that I have second guessed almost every day since. I pulled my kids out of the neighborhood school and enrolled them in a charter school.

 I was pulling my darlings away from their friends and neighbors. I would be spending much more time driving.  I was resigning myself to only buying chinos and button down shirts for them for the next 12 years.

It is only in the last week that I have full confidence that I made the right decision. Yes, they have a lot of homework. Yes, even at a charter school,  some teachers are good, some are great, and some are lacking. Yes, I miss sending them out the door to the bus stop.

But in exchange my children are getting opportunities that never would have been presented to them in a public school.

 Tanner is thriving and his grades have skyrocketed. He was the lead in the school play, the lead in the school musical, and starting point guard for the school basketball team.

The younger kids take drama classes from Youth Theater at the U and dance classes from Virginia Tanner. They don goggles for science and work in a lab with beakers and slides.

I am grateful for the sense of confidence that I have finally achieved regarding this decision. I will continue to worry, but not about this.

Instead I will worry about Abbi’s refusal to sleep in a room with Kennedy because she honestly believes that Kennedy becomes an alien at night.

I will worry about Parker dipping little smokies into chocolate fondu and calling it his favorite dessert.

I will worry  about Cassidy driving on her own and dating.

Perhaps I will never stop worrying. But at least as I drive to school in the mornings I will be at peace.