Tonight my oldest granddaughter had her first real foray out into the world without us, as special friends from church invited her to a performance of “Forever Tango” at the Fox Theater, featuring Anna Trebunskaya from “Dancing with the Stars”. This was her first adventure that didn’t involve other childhood friends and their family members, and it was grand! It is lovely knowing that adult friends appreciate our young ones and choose to enjoy their company.
Of course, there were conversations ahead of time about how to act and what to do. Being only nine, she needed to be reminded to stay with our friends at all times, to pay attention to her surroundings, not to go off to the ladies’ room by herself. And her mother reminded her, as she does every time she goes anywhere with friends, that if for any reason things got weird and she was uncomfortable with the situation, to turn to the nearest adult she trusted and ask to call home or 911.
“You always tell me that,” she said to her mother. Of course we do. We want it to become second nature, not only now, but when she is a teenager and runs up against peer pressure that goes against her better judgement. We can’t always control the world, but we can prepare her to meet its challenges. When I brought it up again at the last minute in the car, she said, “You sound just like Mom. And the adults we can all trust here are Terry and Sandy.” And, of course, she was right. But what she didn’t realize was that we were trusting Terry and Sandy with her, one of our greatest treasures.
I can hardly wait to hear every detail tomorrow on the way to school.