Parenting

The first day of kindergarten inevitably arrived for my oldest child, my five-year-old daughter. "You can handle this," I thought to myself, "it is no big deal." That morning, the house flowed smoothly; everyone got up on time, and was dressed without incident. This was amazing because getting around for me was difficult since I was thirty-eight weeks pregnant plus had a soon to be three-year-old son under foot.

During the five minute drive to the school, I reminded my daughter how much fun she was going to have at 'big' school. All the while, I was repeating silently to myself, "I am not going to cry, I am not going to cry." We pull up at the school, and I leaned over and kissed her cheek. I told her, "I love you, baby; have a great day!" She mumbled a "uh huh," to me as she got out of the car. She never looked back; she kept walking very confidently into the school house. My son started crying, "I wanna go wif sisser!" I also started crying, "Me too!"

I got back to the house and my son stopped crying because he was too busy watching Mommy cry. "You haba boo-boo?" He asked, then replied, "I get choo Band-Aid." This, of course, makes me cry harder, "No sweetie, Mommy is, um, missing sister." He left the room and returned with his sister's favorite, much-worn cotton sundress, "I get this for you," he told me. I buried my face in the soft garment and took a deep breath. Watching me intently, my son asked, "You okay?" I turned to my precious son, smiled a huge smile, and gave him a hug, "Mommy is happy now; thank you!" He beamed at me and we attempted to get 'back to normal' on this very long day. I carried that worn dress with me all day long; my son thought it was funny that Mommy had a "blankie". I survived the day, did not go into labor, and that afternoon I picked my daughter up from school.

 Driving home, my daughter was too busy telling me about her day to notice that I had her favorite dress on my lap; I handed it to her when we arrived home. She skipped to her room, and put it on. I gave her a big hug and thought, "I made it!"

About the Author : Angela Gillespie is the owner of Momma's Place