Go Forth and Matriculate

Oops, I got so caught up in the excitement of my 4 year-old starting Pre-K that I've neglected my blog and all four of you that read it. It's been a bit of a rush making the transition from parents of two small at-home children to one small at-home child and one STUDENT.

Just some of the new additions and practices that can be found in our home now include, backpacks, lunchboxes (which are a lot fancier these days than when I carried one), school lunches, uniforms, and notes from the teacher (all good of course).

Becoming the parent of a student is almost like becoming a parent for the first time. The excitement, paranoia and anxiety rise to levels they hadn't reached since the first sonogram. "What's she going to be like?" becomes "What's she going to be like in school?". Before they're born you just hope your baby is healthy and when you send them off to school you just hope your baby is safe. One thing I'm learning about this parenting gig is that there's ALWAYS something to worry about, "from the womb to the tomb".

So just as I was starting to feel like I had the hang of our everyday tasks and concerns, I'm presented with an all new routine, different hurdles and a fresh new list of shi stuff that keeps me awake at night and staring at my phone during the day. All in the name of education.

And while she's off broadening her horizons at school, her little sister is home celebrating her liberation from sibling oppression, which brings its own set of anxieties. Without her big sister around it's become obvious rather quickly that the little one should be under constant surveillance while she discovers her new found freedom and tests her abilities and limitations.

So maybe not EVERYTHING has changed.

But like I said, it's all exciting. I wait anxiously to see what school brings out of her. Will she be a leader, a scholar, an athlete, shy, obnoxious, silly, assertive, passive, etc.? These are all of the same things I wondered about when she was born and now we've taken our first step to finding out.

School Busses and Boogeymen

I had a short conversation with Zari the other day about all of the things she was afraid of (my attempt at preparing her for her first foray into the "real world" a.k.a. Pre-K next week).

As she explained in her best "4-going-on-25-year-old" logic how noises in the dark make her think there are monsters in the room and how being alone downstairs makes her afraid that something will "get her", my adult mind automatically wanted to dismiss her fears as silly but I didn't.

I didn't because I realized that I also may have fears or anxieties that other may find "silly" or irrational and the last thing I want to hear is that those things that haunt me are unwarranted and/or impossible. For instance, I'm afraid to EVER let me daughter ride a school bus. Too much shi stuff goes wrong on school busses these days and I'd rather just avoid those possibilities altogether. Now some of you may think that's "silly" but no one is going to convince me that "there's nothing to worry about" on those rolling, yellow, vehicles of danger.

I read somewhere that instead of dismissing your child's fears, you should use rationale and logic to help dispel those fears. So instead of saying "there's no such thing as monsters" I should say something like "Daddy won't let any monsters get you" or "monsters only live on school busses" or something along those lines. I get it.

Then it hit me; right now it's monsters, next year it may be swimming, and then public speaking, new schools, dating (cool with that one), leaving home, etc. There will always be a new fear for us to help them through, even as adults. I guess that's just one of the job descriptions of parenting. Always be there to apply rationale and logic to help them overcome the "fear of the day" so that they can continue moving forward.

Just not on a school bus. JS.