School is starting and we are all seeing our Facebook feeds fill with adorable pictures and excited posts from parents. In one week, my munchkin will be starting preschool and in an odd twist, she is the one who is excited and I'm kind of dreading the day.
I remember crying my first day of Kindergarten and begging my mom to stay with me. I probably did the same thing the first day of First Grade. For being a military brat turned military wife, I'm pretty terrible with separation. I cried seeing my parents leave when I started college and I still cry every time I have to say "see you later" to them. I'm an even bigger crier since I became a mom...thanks hormones!
If you caught me on a normal mom day, you'd probably see me frazzled on a playground trying to get my strong willed child to listen. You may find me using the television to babysit her so I can clean the house, and you'd definitely see me losing my patience more than I would like. I get overwhelmed with parenting sometimes and am lucky to have a husband who encourages me to get out for a girl's night or a solo trip to Hobby Lobby. I appreciate those little breaks and use them to recharge my sanity. But I'm also the mom who truly enjoys my grocery trips with my daughter and likes having a little buddy to run my errands with. What am I going to do for 10 hours without her???
She will only be in school two days a week this year, but I've never been away from her that much. She is so excited to start school. She talks about making more friends, learning new things, and singing fun songs like Daniel Tiger does. This morning she told me "When I go to school, I don't need you there. You can just drop me off and pick me up when school is over." Way to rub it in kiddo! I know school is going to be a great thing for her and she is so ready. Now I hope I can get myself just as ready in the next week. There will be tears...from me. I will probably go home and feel like it's just a little too quiet without the nonstop questions. Maybe my craft room will finally get some use, or I'll read a book. I'm definitely going to try cleaning the house without little feet leaving smudges on my freshly mopped floors. But there will definitely be tears. Let's be real, the tears have already started.
Luckily I have an amazing group of friends who have agreed to meet me for lunch that day. One friend even volunteered to cry with me- and if that's not friendship, I don't know what is. :) I know eventually I'll get to the day when I'm high fiving other moms as watch our kid's enter their new classrooms, but this year I'm going to let myself cry a little.
