(Photo: Phil Stafford/Shutterstock.com)
One of the hardest things to do as a parent is to let our children go and Justin Baldoni is certainly feeling it today.
The actor, director and dad has shared a teary video of himself taking son Maxwell to his first day of school.
It started off with a big smile – from both Justin and Maxwell – but ended in tears, from both Justin and Maxwell!
“Today is Maxwell’s first day of school. I’m so happy,” he says as his eyes begin to well up.
“I’m also crying a little bit ’cause I’m so happy. I’m so proud of you,” he continues.
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“Sometimes we cry when we’re happy. It’s a good thing to cry right?” he adds before Maxwell reminds him it’s time to “GO GO GO” to school!
Captioning the video, Justin wonders “when did he grow up? Where have I been?”
And it’s precisely this feeling every parent and carer can relate to.
It’s so easy to miss that change from baby to toddler to big boy to teenager. It really does all happen in the blink of an eye. But then there are times, like their first day of school, when that moment of change stares us right in the face.
When the universe tells us, “hey it’s time to say bye to that toddler. He’s a big boy now.”
When we have to let go.
It’s a moment that can fill us with so much emotion and leave us bursting with so much love for the little human in front of us that we can’t contain it anymore.
We need to cry, because tears of love were never meant to be hidden.
Justin, who’s been using his platform to help redefine masculinity (see his viral TED talk “Why I’m Done Trying to Be Man Enough” and his Man Enough web series), says he shared the video of himself crying in the hopes that other dads will remind their kids that it’s ok to cry too.
“We don’t need a reason, we don’t need to be sad or happy, sometimes we just need to let something out we didn’t even know we were holding. And the best way to let them know is to model it. Let’s normalize our emotions brothers.”
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