Gates of Independence

It's the year of indepence. Both for Mommy and for Darren.

Darren's been going to Sunday School on his own for the last few weeks. By 'on his own', I mean I dropped him at SS right on time, then I (and hubby, whenever he was off duty) joined the sunday service for adults. After SS is over, we would pick Darren from his SS class, or he would come and join us in adult service.

FYI, for Sunday School, they always hold a brief, collective praise n worship service for children aged 0 - 6 before separating them in different classes for different ages when it was time for Bible story-telling. In this way, children get their portions of Biblical teachings according to their current understanding & development.

I used to wonder, whether Darren could find his way to class without getting lost in the crowd going in different directions. His sense of direction is still developing, sometimes he doesn't know where to turn, left or right, to get back to where I was standing, i.e. when we're in a familiar bookstore (with tall rows of bookshelves), or at church. I can imagine, being only a meter-tall or something, things must be pretty confusing.
Heck, even I myself still find my sense of direction poor :P

Anyway, it turned out that he found his way, easily!
Even better yet, no separation anxiety whatsoever, unlike the majority of his SS classmates.

To me, it felt liberating. It's the day that I (we) have been looking forward to, impatiently sometimes. But at some point, it was also touchy. I know you mommies out there know exactly what I'm talking about, some other moms had also told me their own stories of their children entering the first gates of childhood independence. It felt surreal. We would remember the days of their annoying clingy-ness, refusing to let go of mommy's hands (or even legs!!) in SS or at school. And remember way back when they were still learning to walk, or even waaayyy back to the very first time they were put in your arms.

And it's only been a little over 3 years. There will be other gates of independence. Wonder how those would taste :)