I got a call from the boy’s teacher. We had actually been playing phone tag for a few days. It was parent teacher conference time and I was not available during the hours he wanted to meet. We planned to meet via phone but in the meantime he had something he was concerned about…

The boy was crying and acting out…”attention seeking” the teacher said.

“I’m doing my best to show him positive attention but I was wondering if anything was going on at home…?”

I knew right away what the deal was; the boy gave me a big fat hint not long before I got the call from teacher.

“He misses me,” I said resolutely. “I had been working from home for almost three years and now I work in an office.”

I replayed the last couple of months back in my head, trying to think if I had neglected spending time with the boy when I had it. No…we’d gone to our favorite breakfast spot twice last month, cuddled with each other on Saturday mornings, spent hours at our favorite coffee shop playing Mancala, I make him breakfast before school…There was only so much I could do without losing my own mommy time. And mommy is not happy when she doesn’t have her quiet time…

After taking inventory of mommy/boy quality time, I was confident that the issue was more that he was used to me always being around and now I wasn’t around nearly as much. I wasn’t see him off properly in the morning; not around to meet him at his classroom after school or to help him with his homework in the evenings (I expect it done by the time I get home)…He missed his mommy.

So I’ve been super affectionate and attentive the last week or so. I’m a little conflicted though, because I understand how the transition can be tough, but he’s not the first kid to have a working single mother. I’m torn between feeling his pain and thinking he should just get used to seeing me less.

Last Saturday, we went to breakfast and he tagged along while I ran errands in the morning. It was wonderful…just me and the boy. It made me miss the older boy a little because we used to do the same sort of thing on Saturdays before he moved across the country with his father.

sigh

We’ll all be together for Christmas and then I’ll soak up all the boy cuddles and affection I can stand. For now, I’ll have to be sensitive to the little dude’s discomfort with the change.

Change sometimes difficult after all…