Flashback - Kindergarten
A flashback from August 29, 2013 - for all of the kindergarten moms out there!
If you're celebrating your little ones leaving the nest, good for you! If you're fighting back tears, you're not alone...
The girls started kindergarten two weeks ago today. I hardly know where to start writing about this--let's just say that this is the biggest life change that our family has experienced since the girls were born. And while I do feel that our girls were completely prepared, I'm not sure that I was.
I love the girls' school. They have a wonderful, experienced, warm and friendly teacher. The principal there is great and is well-regarded by everyone in the community. You walk in the doors of the school and instantly know that it is a happy place, full of people who are passionate about teaching and love to work with children. And yet, against all logic and reason, it pains me.
I am a teacher, for crying out loud! And the last five-and-a-half years have been challenging, for sure. If my brain were dominant here, I would be jumping up and down that my twins have started school, and I am home free. But then there's the heart... Turns out that it is hard to let them go. I know it's just kindergarten. That they're still home at the end of the day. That parenting is far from over. You know what the thing is? They're not babies anymore, they never will be again, and there's no more kidding myself about that. As long as they're in preschool, only away from home for a couple of hours at a time, a few days a week, they're still babies. They eat lunch at home. They take naps. You have the whole afternoon ahead of you every day. If they miss school, it's really no big deal. Not so with kindergarten. Kindergarten is "big school." You go every day, or else. There's a cafeteria, a gym, and homework. And even if your sweet kindergartner looks at you with sleepy, weepy eyes at dinner time and asks, "Do we have to go tomorrow?" the answer is yes. And then when she pitifully says, "But in the middle of the day, I really miss you," and starts to cry, you still have to let your brain take over, ignore your breaking heart, and remind her {and yourself} of all the fun and important things that she's doing in kindergarten. And say to her {and yourself}, "Yes, you will go again tomorrow." In spite of all of this, I do know that they really are having a great time. They're tired (and prone to tears) at the end of the day, but I do know that it's where they ought to be. And at least there's the other twin to provide some levity: "When we're at school, I miss you, but then I'm having so much fun that I forget about it." Thanks, Caroline.
