Jamie Lynn Spears isn’t taking her daughter Maddie’s high school graduation in stride, and she’s perfectly fine admitting it.
The Zoey 101 star, 35, shared an emotional post on Instagram on Friday, April 24, as the reality of the milestone finally hit home.
With graduation invitations sent, cap and gown arrived and the last regular day of school upon them, Spears said the state of denial she had been living in could no longer hold.
“The reality of time is coming at me like a freight train,” she wrote alongside photos of Maddie, 16, which she shares with ex-fiancé Casey Aldridge, spanning from babyhood to her senior year.
She reflected on one of the most well-worn phrases in parenting and found herself won over by it.
“I know the saying ‘the days are long but the years are short’ is one of the most clichéd sayings, eg it’s been said so much, but I now know that clichés are only said so much eg.
She described the feeling as bittersweet, pride in all that Maddie has accomplished, alongside a longing to keep her as a baby forever.
She finished with a gentle nudge to co-parents to stay present and cherish the little things.
“You will NEVER regret spending time with your kids,” she wrote, before adding a characteristically down-to-earth detail.
“It’s also about the little things, like today I had a scoop of coffee ice cream for breakfast, I’ll probably have it for lunch too, bc tears & ice cream are an unbeatable duo.”
Maddie’s response in the comments was just as sweet. “I love you” and “stop making me cry,” she wrote, to which Spears replied, “You’re the one who should just go and grow up.”
It has been a season of milestones for the couple.
Last month, Spears shared photos from Maddie’s senior prom, posting a meme of herself crying along with the caption, “SENIOR PROM I’m fine, not crying at allggg.”
Spears is also mother to eight-year-old daughter Ivey with husband Jamie Watson.
