Date Night With a 10 Year Old

Mom! It's Family Reading Night! Can we go?

And then I cringed.

Seriously? Family Reading Night? Couldn't we stay home and read? I know, we can lock ourselves in your bedroom and have Mommy and Me night all by ourselves without having to go out! (I said in my thoughts.)


I am happy to be a homebody. Don't get me wrong - I love a shopping trip. Or even a simple Starbucks run. But those are things that happen in the light of day. Once the kids are home from school and evening sets in, I loathe the idea of breaking up a quiet family night at home. But Luke really wanted to go, and I hated to disappoint him. As we were driving down the the school, just Luke and I, I was reminding myself not to be cricical out loud. This was a special time for Luke, even if it wasn't so much for me.

I hope it's fun. They said there's going to be a special project and snacks in the cafeteria.

There are snacks at Starbucks.

What if it's not fun? Maybe we can just go home and read together.

Oh, sure, NOW you give that as an option.

Or maybe we could run to Starbucks and have fun there, I offered.

Well, only if I could get something!

But he wants to go to Family Reading Night even more. Don't spoil it for him.

And we walked into the school together.

reading

We chose Riding the Tiger and How The Cat Swallowed Thunder. I listened to Luke read, and marveled at how far he'd come since he read to me last. I read to him, and remembered how much I loved this when the kids were little. I missed it. A lot. We had a snack, and made a craft together. It was a necklace. He gifted to me when we were finished.

"Well that was a fun night, wasn't it?" Luke asked as we were leaving.

"It sure was. Much better than Starbucks would have been."

5 comments:

Annette W. said...

Awe...love your responses at the end of the night.

I could have written the second paragraph. I love the days when I don't have to leave my four walls...and hate having to go out in the evening unless it's for one of those once a year dates we manage.

Trisha said...

So glad that you went and bonded with Luke. It sounds like it really was fun. Where is a picture of the necklace?

Cindy said...

Yay mom! I'm with you, once the sun goes down, I prefer to be at home. SO glad you went and had a good time!

Flea said...

How sweet! We're so much alike. I think I like working with little ones now because I get to read to them. They want all my favorites over and over: Go Dog, Go! Are You My Mother? Fish Out of Water, Ten Apples Up On Top ... classics!

The Sports Mama said...

Bug and I are planning a trip to see Gnomeo and Juliet sometime in the relatively near future. I was informed, however, that calling it a "date" with mom was just....wrong. We'll simply be hanging out together.

*sigh*

I miss the age where they could go on a date with mom and not need to call it something else. This whole teenager thing? Ugh.