As I mentioned in my first post, I work as a kindergarten teacher. Well this is probably nowhere near a father role, not that I would know, I don't have any kids of my own.
But! I spend eight hours a day, five days a week with these seven wonderful kids in my group. And I don't just spend time with them, I do everything with them. I eat with them, play with them, sing with them, if they get hurt I'm there for them, if they bully each other I tell them to stop and explain why they shouldn't bully each other, basically I teach them right and wrong and why it's right or wrong.
So two years ago when these kids started coming to kindergarten they were about one and a half year old and some of them had just learned to walk.
Sometimes I still subconsciously help them out with their clothes, but they are always reminding me of how much they have grown and that they can do it them selves.
I'm really proud of them, feels amazing watching how much they have grown and how independent they are at just the age of three! I know they have their families, their fathers, mothers and some of them have siblings that they are learning from, but still eight hours of their days are pretty much half of their awake time and these two years I have been with them, that's over half of their life!
At first I just took this as a regular work, but over time you are starting to know them better, and suddenly you know them so good that you know their next move, and even before they get to say "hi" in the morning, you already know how the day will go.
Now a day I don't really think of it as work, It's more like a second home to me.
What I wanted to get said is, after three weeks I'm going to move on with my life and probably do something else than teaching at a kindergarten. I'm not quitting because I don't like it, that's not the case, I really enjoy my time with the kids. But there is something else I want to do, even though I don't know exactly what at this specific moment, but maybe I'll figure something out during the summer.
I haven't been thinking too much about me leaving, until today when one of my kids heard from his mother that I'm going to quit. He instantly raised his voice and told her that "Jerry is going to be here forever". And at that moment my brain started spinning, what are the kids thinking about me leaving? As I said, over half of their life I have been with them every weekday morning that they arrive at kindergarten, and suddenly I wont be there anymore. Well they will probably wonder for some time where I am, but sooner or later they will probably forget about me.
The same doesn't go for me, this feels terrible! Even though I know they aren't my kids, it still feels painful leaving them. After such a long time and all the hours I have spent with them, all the things we have learned together, I will suddenly have to move on. I will probably never forget about them, and I have promised to go visit them every now and then.
For all the mothers and fathers here on Steemit that are leaving their kids at kindergarten, you'll never have to be worried about ending up second to a kindergarten teacher, your kids will always be bound to you on a different way. That is something even I can understand, even though I'm not a parent.