It’s back to school time and for the first time as of tomorrow, we will officially have a little one in “real” school. We have our first Kindergartner we are sending off for full days of school, 5 days a week with a beefy school supply list. I know this is nothing new to any of you seasoned parents with older kids who have done this for years now, but hear me out. I’ve been thinking A LOT about sending my “baby” off to school full time and it’s especially interesting because I look at our youngest and think “Oh my gosh. This is what our “baby Zoe” looked like just FIVE years ago. And my heart aches. I have a lump in my throat and butterflies in my stomach. It’s not that I don’t want our kids to grow up. It’s that I know how FAST it goes, how fast it went, and how fast it will go for our other kids. Five years of our lives have FLOWN by. It is entirely true — the days are long and the years are short.
When people ask me if I’m going to cry on her first day of Kindergarten, I say I don’t know. I’ve been dreading/excited about this since last year when she got her first taste of school in Pre-K. When I thought about this more in depth, I’ve come to realize something. This isn’t “just” our oldest going off to Kindergarten. This is *our* first time having a child in school full time. This changes everything for *us* as a family. No longer are we able to do whatever we want, whenever we want. We can’t just “pick up and go”. We have to consider the hours of the school day, the days off, and how late we stay up/out at night. Vacations suddenly revolve around a school year calendar rather than the traditional January to December year. Doctors appointments can’t be made when it happens to be convenient for us. We have to consider school. Nap times, lunch times, hair cuts, laundry, parties, outings with friends, errands, and so on. They all revolve around school. And then we’ll start in with sports, school activities, parent meetings, student and parent involvement, homework, volunteering, fund raising, school auctions, tournaments, friends coming over, and so on.
I’m not saying I’m not looking forward to these things. I truly am. It’s exciting to be the doe-eyed “new parent” and to experience this, especially for the first time. It’s exciting to see how thrilled our daughter is for Kindergarten. What I’m saying, though, is that this is a huge change for us as a family. It’s a life change. It’s a new phase. Our middle child, Finn, has hardly experienced any of his little life without his buddy, Zoe, by his side, so that’s a huge change for him as well. We’ve been in baby/toddler/little people phase for 6 years and now it’s like we’re graduating, evolving, and moving on to the next steps. It’s intimidating, it’s new, and it’s unchartered territory for all of us. It feels a bit like we’re all starting out on our first day of school. And the best I can liken it to as an adult is being with the same company for the last 6 years and then starting a new job where you have to learn everyone’s names, personalities, the rules, the logins, the passwords, who to call for various situations, and what programs to use. There’s pressure to get it right and to make your kids feel like you know *exactly* what you’re doing (even though I know from last year speaking to some of the parents that most of us were feeling a bit like lost sheep). I’m thankful we have her enrolled in the same school she was at last year so there’s a sense of familiarity, but there’s still a sense of newness all at the same time.
Kindergarten changes everything. So to all of you parents with kiddos starting out new this year — whether that’s in Kindergarten, a new school, going away to college, or somewhere in between, I’m with you. I’m confident that instead of asking each other if we’re going to cry, if we just hold each other’s hands (figuratively or literally), just like the little ones do on their first day of Kindergarten, that we will all make it through together. That’s what it’s really all about, though, right? Instilling confidence, charisma, character — not just in our Kindergarten children, but in ourselves as a community.
Happy Back to School Week! You can do it! Your kids can do it! Even though Kindergarten changes everything, life is about to get so exciting!