First day
I took the dotter in to school today, her first day of kindergarden. Since things have been up in the air lately, she didn’t have new shoes, a new backpack, a fancy new outfit, or anything like that. But, of course, I took the requisite First Day Of School picture. Equally of course, it’s blurry.
I met Miss Shoehorn, who seems like a lovely lady, and handed her the bag of supplies requested. (Since this was the first time we had ever done this, I had no idea if I was supposed to fill the dotter’s backpack with all the stuff, or keep it at home and dole it out bit by bit, or what. So I dumped it all in a bag, figuring I would ask when we got there. I can see why they don’t spell it out–after all, most parents have been through it many times already, so why bother? But for those of us clueless firsttimers, it would have been nice to be told, “All this stuff gets put into one big pile of each item, and is doled out to the kids during the year as needed”, rather than just leaving us to go “Bduh, bduh, bduh, whaddoIdo wit’ this stuff?”)
I liked the classroom–it’s fun and organized and busy and looks like the kids will be involved, entertained, and learn.
The dotter handled it well; she was very excited to be Going To School! But then came the moment when mommy was getting up to go…
And the tears came. Big fat tears, seeping out of her eyes, her lips trembling oh-so-slightly. And the tears began to fall, more and more of them, but she didn’t cry or sob, oh no no. She just wept quietly, and asked me, in a very trembly voice, “When will you pick me up?”
Oh, baby. Oh, you’re such a big girl now. In a few days, that moment of fear and trembling will be a wisp of memory; you’ll be making friends and learning things and having fun. All I wanted to do was to cuddle you up and give you big hugs, but I knew if I did, the weeping would turn to sobs and my big brave girl wouldn’t be able to handle it.
I didn’t cry, myself, not until I just wrote that last paragraph. But, yeah, there it is: she’s growing up, getting bigger, and sooner than we expect, we’ll be schlepping her off to college and the house will be much emptier.
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