Half a Hug At Drop Off – Tween Life

During school drop off, one of my daughter’s classmates was being smothered with kisses by her mom. This of course resulted in all the kids standing around laughing at the girl. You could tell the girl was so not into having her mother kiss her as she was struggling to escape her strongman grasp. Her mom could have cared less that her daughter was pushing her away or completely ignored the snickering and laughter.

I wasn’t sure if my daughter had seen this outsized display of affection as we had already completed our morning ritual of a hug and kiss followed my daily rundown of all the things not to forget.

“Don’t forget to write down your homework, don’t forget your math homework and don’t forget to look for your lunch box.”

But off she went into the school salt mines for another day.

The next morning, as we came in the lunchroom for drop off, she did not even turn around and tried to run off with so much as a glance, let alone my daily hug and a kiss.  I yelled at her, asking her to come back. She turned around with a “why are you calling me look” and slowly walked towards me.

“Don’t I get a hug and a kiss?” I asked.

“Really!?, she asked as if I was asking for her to turn off the tv before bedtime.

“Yes,” I literally had to beg for my kiss and hug.

Then she half- heartedly half hugged me. She didn’t even bother to put her arms around me, she kind of just leaned into me.  It reminded of all the bad dates I have had where I tried to avoid the icky dates attempt at kissing me.

And then she did even bother shoot me an air kiss. A like a shooting star, she was off. And so it begins, the slow avoidance and acknowledgement that I am her mother.