Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's Off to Work I Go...

It's hard being a working parent, having to leave your little treasures behind for the day, sometimes for several days. For me it's always been difficult, ever since our first-born Austin came along. In their earlier years of life I could (and do now with the girls) usually see them before I headed off to work, but as they grew older it became more difficult because they often woke up after I left. As the working day draws on, your longing for them grows stronger so that by the time you actually leave work you find your mind fixated on just walking through that front door and being greeted by their lovely little faces, not to mention the wonderful smile and embrace of your spouse. Of course if you have to travel and spend the night somewhere, like I sometimes have to do, it's just murder. Now when I come home from work and open that garage door into our family room I usually hear the pitter-patter of little feet running across the hardwood floor with high-pitched screams at the top of their lungs, "Daddy, Daddy!!!", or "GaGa, GaGa!!!" in the case of Willow. I don't think your heart can melt much more than at times like those.

I guess one thing that makes my departure to work so particularly hard these days is that the girls are almost always up and Adam by 6:30 in the morning, so I'm able to connect with them as they eat breakfast or cuddle in the study room. But I have to say that the clincher is when I get into my car while still parked in the garage, start to back out looking over my shoulder, and then when I turn back around and peer through my windshield I see this adorable little face and hand sticking out of the cat-door waving to me as I pull away. Rolling down my window and putting my head out of it I can hear Willow say, "Bye, GaGa!" Aaauuggghhhh, how badly I want to just pull back into the garage and stay home the rest of the day. Oh, but I shall not, for off to work I must go and just be satisfied that I'll receive that effusive greeting from her (and Poppy) when I come home.

Working with a purpose,

Tom