I have custody of my five year old grandson Keelen because my daughter, his mother, is in prison and will be until December 2011. I’ll get into why she is in prison in another blog.
I recently registered him for kindergarten. I took his birth certificate, shot records AND custody decree.
I know that Keelen is in the best place possible and I love him to pieces. I just hate those questioning looks and outright questions. “So, why is he living with you? Where’s his mom?” Maybe I should learn to lie.
When the lady helping us fill out the paperwork mistakenly called me Keelen’s mother, he very curtly told her “That’s my grandma….my mommy’s in prison”. I was stunned at his matter of factness!! He didn’t even miss a beat. I on the other hand was speechless as was the lady. She just looked at me, I looked at her and we moved on.
I love my daughter and am very proud of the progress she has made. I try not to carry any shame and embarrassment where she is concerned but that can be difficult. I do my best to stay out of conversations where proud parents are bragging about their kids.
Although he does not know exactly why she is in prison other than she broke the law, Keelen and I talk about her and he visits her about once a week. He is going to have to learn to deal with this at school. I am concerned that he will become ashamed of the fact that she is in prison. I know my issues revolve around feeling like a failure as a parent and I don’t want to project my feelings onto him.
Well, I put off kindergarten registration as long as possible but we finally made it through it.
It’s amazing that after working in Baghdad, Iraq for two years…..kindergarten registration was scarier.
Ms Sparky
