Watch List
I had the realization the other night as we were sitting at the dinner table, doing our daily de-brief of the kids. I wasn’t just asking questions (especially of Allison, the 4th grader) to find out about their day. I had crossed a threshold.
I was gathering intelligence.
You only have to hear the names of the kids at school so many times before, having not met them, you begin to categorize them. Smart kid. Drama princess. Troublemaker. Athlete. I realized that I’m starting to build, in my mind, a database of who all the kids are in their grade, and most importantly, which ones I need to be keeping an eye on and/or out for.
Which makes me wonder whose watchlist I ended up on.
I’m making a list, checking it twice. Gonna find out who gets to play with my kids. Or take my daughter on a date in about 20 years. Or something.