When the bell rings on the last class of the season and tennis shoes walk out the door to summers freedom, expectation greets them at the car door. Of sun-kissed shoulders, sandy toes, and high fives from friends. Airplane rides to crystal seas, boats on still water with fishing line hanging over the edge catching dinner at the end.

But reality feels like a beat up chevy stalled in a wheat field, a map I can’t read laid out on the hood of the car in a spot with no cell service. I’m not sure how to navigate a summer with teens when my expectation is headed to the busy streets of France and they are on their way to a deserted island of slumber.

In the age of innocence we sat for hours at a low table of finger paint and rolling play doh, playing Frisbee in a pool that now feels awkward without friends.  The eyes that met mine eye level laid out horizontal in the bed before the sun peeked through shades, now stay closed long past the cheerios and milk are put away.

And those expectations of summer, they have me wondering how to be a Mother and I can’t find that chapter in What to Expect When Your Expecting.

Joining Five Minute Friday with Lisa-Jo with the one word prompt: Expectation.