Donuts With Dad

Yesterday was Donuts With Dad at Joseph’s preschool.

The school year was coming to an end, and they were hosting the event as an early Father’s Day celebration. Nothing extravagant. Just dads bringing their kids to school and spending a few minutes together in the courtyard over donuts and juice before the day began.

I walked in with Joseph, checked him in, and then headed out to the courtyard where I grabbed a few donut holes for both of us and a cup of orange juice to share.

As we walked to our table, Joseph made sure to say hello to every kid we passed. He knew all of their names and seemed determined to greet each one before we sat down.

Once we got settled, Joseph went to work on the donuts.

The sprinkle-covered one disappeared first, followed quickly by the glazed one. The crumb-covered donut hole required a little encouragement, but eventually it met the same fate as the others.

When he finished and took a sip of juice, he looked up at me and said:

“More donuts.”

So, of course, I went and got him another one.

I don’t get to take Joseph to school very often or pick him up at the end of the day. Jillian teaches at the preschool, so unless she’s off work, she usually handles those responsibilities.

It was fun getting to see Joseph walk into that school like he owned the place.

He waved at kids as he passed them, as if he had been voted Most Popular in the Preschool Yearbook. It was fun getting to see him in his element.

As parents, we spend a lot of time with our kids before school and after work, but we rarely get to see them in the environment where they spend so much of their day.

I’m fortunate that I get to volunteer in Brooks’s classroom and coach many of his classmates on the baseball field, but I don’t really know Joseph’s friends beyond the stories I hear from him and Jillian.

So it was nice to put some faces to the names.

It was also nice to see a few familiar dads, including my brother-in-law, who was there with my niece and ended up joining us at our table.

Time is moving fast.

Brooks will be in first grade next year, and Joseph will be heading to elementary school before I know it. It feels like yesterday that we were bringing them home from the hospital. In fact, we were looking at those pictures just this morning.

Being able to pause time for a moment and sit next to Joseph while sharing a donut in the middle of a busy week felt meaningful.

It wasn’t a vacation.

It wasn’t a birthday.

It wasn’t a holiday.

It was just a Friday morning in June before I headed off to work.

An ordinary moment.

But one that was captured in a few photographs and permanently stored in my memory.

Next year will be my last Donuts With Dad at preschool.

And before I know it, there won’t be classroom parties to attend or baseball teams to coach.

But yesterday there was.

And I’m glad I got to share that moment—and that extra donut—with Joseph.