My baby, Hannah, is in full-day, every day kindergarten this
year. I won’t lie - I have been waiting for this
year for a while. I absolutely love and
adore all my children and I love my time with them. The reality is, however, I also needed more
time in the office and I have found myself buried under work. I knew that to get caught up, I needed to start
working full-time and what little child wants to be dragged to the office for 8
hours or more a day, 5 days a week?
Hannah started classes the 21st and I DID cry
that first day I left her in the classroom, but the following two days I kept
busy at work. When Monday came around, I
could sense the loneliness setting in without my little sidekick. Monday has always been my “volunteer” and
“errand” day. Hannah would go everywhere
with me and never complain. That Monday,
I walked Hannah to the playground and became very reluctant to leave her. I watched Hannah play by herself on the
monkey bars and stayed until I knew she was safely in line to head into
class. I was positive someone was going
to trample my little girl. Later that
morning, I was the library helper for Hannah’s class. I watched her in class and kept thinking “She
is just too little for kindergarten! What was I thinking?”
I walked with the class back to the classroom and helped
“herd” them into the lunchroom. I made
the mistake of going into the lunchroom where I saw Hannah fumbling to get her
lunch containers open. So being the
great mother I am, I opened up her containers, grabbed a napkin and reminded
her to eat her vegetables. I am actually
pretty embarrassed to have done that because I have always taught my children
to do things for themselves. Emma, my 2nd
grader, ran up to me in the lunch room while I was helping Hannah and gave me a
hug. She then rolled her eyes and said,
“Mom she is just fine.” It took all my
willpower to leave the school and not take Hannah with me.
When Hannah came home that afternoon I told her how much I
missed her and that maybe she should just stay home with me. I know - mistake number two! Fortunately, Hannah replied, “I really like
school, but maybe one day I can stay home with you. Just tell them I am sick.” As eager as I have been for my children to
return to school, I have missed them greatly this week. I thought I was ready for Hannah to move up
in the world and start full-day school, but have struggled this week with my
decision. By the way, when I left the
office on Friday, I was still buried with work that will have to wait for next
week!
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