Everyone needs people in their lives to "come pick me up". I was able to rely on my parents, but it's different. Kids need people other than their parents to go to for comfort. I was so fortunate to have my grandparents. Husband had his grandparents, too, at least while they lived in Ohio. I’m not sure my kids would even know who to call to “come pick me up”, other than us. My daughter, I feel, would call either of her best friends’ moms. She would feel bad about it and not really do it unless it were an emergency, but she knows she can rely on them. Monster, he has no one. While Grandpa was living in Ohio, he would call on him, but Monster didn’t like to bother him. My kids know they can always run over to Aunt C and Uncle J’s house, but, again, they wouldn’t want to bother them. It breaks my heart that my kids feel like they are a bother to people.
Times have changed so much that the villages people used to have to help raise their kids have gone away. I feel that there are a lot of kids out there like my kids. I know that Sunshine’s best friend has no one to call other than her parents. It gets me thinking, I really hope she knows she can call on me. In fact, with any of my kids’ friends, I am happy to be the person they call. It’s been a while since we discussed it, but back in 6th or 7th grade, I let my friend’s daughter know she could always call me to come pick her up from a party or someplace if she didn’t want to call her parents. With COVID, no one is going anywhere, but I feel like I need to remind her that’s still the case.
We all need a soft place to land. Someone who you are not living with day in and day out. Over the years, I’ve had different “come pick me up” people in my life and I am thankful for each one of them, even if we are no longer in each other’s lives.