​

​

​

​

                          School's in Session 101

​

​

School is starting, and I am starting too.  Starting to get nervous, excited, encouraged, and stressed, all at the same time.  If anyone should be nervous it should be my kindergartner. But he is not nervous, which is precisely why I am.  I wonder if they have ever lost a kindergartner between the drinking fountain and the art room. Yesterday I told my kindergartner to put some socks on and he ended up in the basement, two floors down from the sock drawer.  He tells me, “Don’t worry Mom, kindergarten will be just fine.” I hope so. If not, I will probably never know because a child who cannot remember that he was on his way to get socks will most likely not remember the details of the not so fine moments of kindergarten. 

​

My oldest child is excited to be starting a new year. I am excited with her, minus the drama that will take her from best day to worst day to best day ever, all before noon. Unlike my kindergartner, she will remember the details of the day and then some.

I pray they have a good day, and that I have a good day as well.  I will miss them as I dash in and out of the grocery store in 10 minutes, the amount of time it usually takes us to walk from the parking lot to the store entrance .  And when I realize there is no one to ask about my missing car keys, I will be hoping no one on the other side of town is asking about missing kindergartners, or why it is the fifth graders are missing the point of the lesson at hand. 

​

Growing up is hard. Especially on parents. It is hard to let go, to let them learn, especially knowing that sometimes learning comes the hard way. It would be much easier to continue to spoon feed them. Easier now, but not later. Eventually they need to think on their own, own their own values, do the right thing, not because it is the only choice, but because it is the right choice and they have made it their own. 

​

 It will be a year of learning for all of us, especially me.  Learning how to help my kids, learning that sometimes the best way to help them is by not helping.  It is a tricky thing, parenting school age children, knowing when to step in and when to step back. Every school year is a new year, every day of it a new day for learning, for growing.  It will go fast, as life does, and I want to make the moments count. They will. Especially if I can remember (on the days that happen to unravel) the words of my kindergartner, “Don’t worry Mom, it will be just fine.”

 

​

“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you;” 

Isaiah 66:13 (ESV)