Late!

Today Daddy was available to pick Caleb up from school after his work so we both went BUT, we were 10min later than usual. When the teacher opened the door for Daddy, before she could say anything, Daddy saw a teary looking Caleb with red, swollen eyes running towards him and crying "Daddy!". Caleb's teacher explained that he started to cry when the other two of his classmates who are also on half day school, got picked up by the school bus. He was the only one left and he thought that we had forgotten to come to bring him home. The poor boy. I was waiting outside the school and when Daddy carried Caleb out, I asked him "Caleb did you cry?" and the boy said in between sobs, "Yes, because I wanted Mommy..." and he started to get emotional and sobbed even more.
Both me and Daddy were so amused by him and we couldn't help but laugh. Of course we didn't laugh in his face lah. We were more sensitive than that. We assured him that we love him too much to want to leave him in school and not bring him home and gave him lots of hugs and kisses. Then we got into the car and laughed (quietly), with him sitting in his car seat behind still looking emotional.
On a more serious note, hehe... it reminded me how fragile our children's hearts are. Even though it seems obvious to us parents that we love them sooo much but just little things like being slightly late to pick them up can make them think we don't love them as much or love them less.
Oh and somehow the incident brought to mind about myself as a child. I remember when I was in kindergarten, Ma-ma was quite often late (at least in my memory it happened often) in picking me up from school in the afternoon and all my friends would be gone and I'll be all alone waiting at the gate for Ma-ma. And there weren't any teachers accompanying me. Just me and the gate. And often times, after waiting and waiting and waiting, I recall having the thought that maybe she doesn't want me anymore. And I'll start to get really anxious and then when I finally see Ma-ma driving up... wah, then I'll start to feel relieved again. Haha, so maybe that's how Caleb felt too this afternoon. OK lah, we'll try really hard not to be late to pick him up again. I don't want my son growing up thinking half the time that we don't want him lor.