Well I imagine that there are some teenagers and especially our boys who are desperately yearning to run back to you and give you a hug, as if to say Mommy and Daddy not yet, I need more time with you, I really have something I want to say on this day!

As I pulled up slowly towards the drop and go lane at my daughter’s high school I saw the trunk of an SUV fly up and I just wondered if that mom had tons of kids she was dropping off and maybe they needed to get their book bags. She didn’t. Instead one, tall, caramel-skinned boy with a curly ‘fro  atop his head swung the door open and began to hop out of the car sort of like you do when you’re playing hopscotch. 

He took about 25 hops to get around to the front of the car where the mom swung her door open to go to the back of the SUV to retrieve what I saw was familiar to me because my husband spent months on this assistive device, which was a knee scooter. The boy was injured. 

Mom lifted the knee scooter out of the back of the SUV, flung it to the curb, plopped it down and as he hopped towards her.  There they were face-to-face for just one brief second and I thought, “Awwww, so sweet she’s going to hug him.” But she did not!

His face looked so glum. Maybe because school that day wasn’t exactly the place he wanted to be. Or maybe he needed more time with mom. What if he really had something he wanted to say.  In those few seconds I analyzed their body language and expressions as they both crossed each other’s paths without a word, without an embrace, without a smile.

Mom jumped back into her SUV, closed the door and zoomed away from the drop off line. Her son lingered a moment. He adjusted his knee on the scooter, took out his AirPods, snuggled them in place and adjusted the volume of his music.

He began to slowly kick and push himself up the ramp towards the doorway of the school. I assume that she was racing off to the first place that desired her presence so early in the morning.

It reminded me of my family. This morning, my husband and I woke up at the same time, stirred by the sound of our toddlers giggling in the stairway as they tried to count down the days until Christmas. Our four-year-old, Lily-Jean, excitedly shouted, “Oh my goodness, Junie, this one is Christmas Day 2-5, and it’s today. Today is Christmas Day, Junie!” We couldn’t help but laugh as we stayed cozy in bed, with me gently massaging his head, trying to ease away the stress of yesterday’s challenges. We cherished those fleeting moments together, knowing how rare they’ve been lately with his long days of teaching and late nights spent creating music on his saxophone. I’m deeply thankful that, even after navigating the dark roads late into the night, he’s made it home safely to us.

I held his hand and we prayed as the children played in the stairway and our oldest did her strict morning routine. I got myself together, cleaned up the little ones, bundled them up after breakfast and we two raced off to our cars with my husband or daddy/poppy hollering from the bathroom, "I'll see you guys later, I mean later, later."

I shouted I love you and we all rushed for the door with my four year-old turning back to say, “Is daddy going to work today?” When I said yes I remembered that they never got a chance to run and hug his leg this morning and they wouldn’t probably see him that night because he’d be tracing the late night roadways to play and entertain a crowd with the sounds of the music.  

Nevertheless, no matter the places we must be, our children still long for our presence even if they don't know exactly how to communicate that sentiment at different stages of life. 

As working parents, we must relish in what seem like millisecond moments that we get with our children even as we are transitioning from one event in our day to the next.

We have to speak their love languages at high volumes.  Let there be love in our tone of voice. Let them be able to taste love with each meal you prepare. Let there be appreciation for the small glances across the room as you cook dinner and they complete homework and even the corny jokes they tell. Let’s have a sense of gratitude for those quiet moments together during yet another commute.

Let us not neglect the quick moments we can steal to offer an embrace. Go slow and take a few moments to exhale to be able to carefully recognize and appreciate the millisecond moments we need to take hold of and extend them just a little while longer.