Sandbox Adventure List 18: Kindergarten

I never have trouble sleeping.

Ever.

But last night … last night was Kindergarten Eve and it was a rough one. Not so much because my son was tossing or turning, he wasn’t. Not so much because he was worried and stressed out, he wasn’t.

It was me. I was the problem.

I was anxious and feeling uneasy. I was having an attack of the neurotic mom syndrome. I had worries. At first it was little things, like waking up late and then having him be late for school, or getting toothpaste on his first-day-of-school shirt. Then it got to the point where I worried about the teacher sitting him next to the kid who ate crayons, no offense to the kid who ate crayons. I worried about jackass kid bullies. I know that as a mom I shouldn’t say jackass kids, but I know you know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen them out there wreaking havoc on weary moms and deans of discipline. The kind of kids that need a scared-straight moment. I worried about bathroom breaks. I worried he wouldn’t make it to the bathroom in time and he’d be the kid who peed in his pants on the first day of kindergarten, marking him for the rest of his elementary school life. Yeah … that was me late at night.

The 6:15 a.m. wake-up alarm was rough. But I managed to survive the morning rush and got to school in plenty of time to avoid the crazy mom minivan-SUV traffic jam. And the fact that I found parking and didn’t have to walk five blocks to the entrance … dude … I think that’s what flipped the switch and I remembered to breathe. The early morning seemed peaceful enough to ease my anxiety and be fully present for the first-day-of-kindergarten-you’re-going-to-do-great speech.  And it was …

 

The morning awaited us …

 

Wearing his Batman backpack he felt brave and walked toward the doors.

 

Waiting eagerly to walk through the doors and begin his first day.

 

His sister was a little sad to see him go. She waited for a long time before walking back to the car.

 

Dropping him off was tough, but picking him up was awesome … for all us. His sister saw him and shrieked out his name … just as loud as Rocky screamed out Aaaaadriennnnnnnnnnne!

 

I was happy to see him smile when he saw me, happy to hear about his day, happy to hear that he got a “peacekeeper” badge for being well-behaved, and happy that the first day of kindergarten went better than expected. I was happy, I was relieved.