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The Moment I Thought I Had Lost My Child
How a harrowing experience caused me to confront the dilemma of parenting in 2019
I thought I lost my son yesterday.
He’s five.
I had taken him to the park with his sister who is three.
We’re lucky enough to have multiple parks within easy walking distance to our house and during the nine or so months of daylight savings time we go to the park nearly every evening.
When we started last year, we went to the closest park to our house nearly every time.
This year, the kids have gotten quite good on their scooters and have asked to go to the park that’s a little farther away. Again, we are very close to these parks, so “a little farther away” means about a six minute walk.
We have a great time.
The kids bring their scooters, I bring a frisbee and a football and we play together.
Yesterday I played football with my daughter until she said her legs were too tired to play anymore. I switched to playing catch with the frisbee with my son and marveled at how much he has improved since we started.
At some point, my daughter asked if we could move away from the field and head back to the playground. I…