Seasoned Kindergarten Mom

 

Well, it finally happened. I suppose it was inevitable really, I am just surprised that it only took 2 ½ months. I have become a Seasoned Kindergarten Mom.

 

I started off like any first-time Kindergarten mom taking her child to school: daughter dressed in freshly washed and ironed uniform, me freshly showered with hair done and make-up on. I was not sure how long it would last, but I knew I was starting to slip when the yoga pants came out.

 

I tried to tell myself that the more casual attire was still suitable because I was exercising immediately after drop-off in the morning. And because I was off to exercise, why would I shower before exercising when I would have to shower again right afterward? And who wears make-up to go running? It was when I arrived back at school for pick-up still wearing the same yoga pants, still not showered and not exercised, that I realized I was heading down that slippery slope.

 

I reigned myself in a bit for awhile, but noticed this morning that the freshly laundered and pressed uniform I proudly put on my daughter each day was now on its third wearing since wash day; it also had not seen the underside of a hot iron since…well, for a while anyway.

 

I like to think of this recent development as me growing into my role of Kindergarten Mom, part of my ever-evolving job description and path to parental career advancement. It was bound to happen eventually and I am not sure if 2 ½ months makes me a slow learner, an over-achiever, or just average, but I know that I have arrived.

 

I am the Seasoned Kindergarten Mom.

Independence Day

Well, it finally happened. After five and a half years of helping our daughter gain the confidence and skills needed to become an independent school-age kid, she went and did it. And I couldn’t be happier/more upset.

Anticipating a tearful good-bye on the first day of Kindergarten, I worked with our daughter to prepare her for the inevitable separation. What I did not anticipate was how quickly she would adjust. While I did have to bribe her with McDonald’s on the first day (not a good example to set, I know, but this was a hard day for me too!), by the next morning we hardly had her coat off when she turned to me and said, “OK, you can go now.” Ooookay. I did not think I was hovering until the fourth day when she stunned me with, “Mom, I can handle it!” Alrighty then.

I am, of course, thrilled that our little girl has made the leap to independence at school, but, like many before me, I am also a bit sad. Not crying-hysterical sad (I got that out the way the night before school started: “Can’t we keep her back one more year?” “No honey, she is already five and a half.”), just sentimental sad.

I know this is not a unique story and that moms all over the world shared this same experience last week. I just miss my baby and know that, like every mom, I always will.

Sleepy Mommy

My daughter is starting Kindergarten in a few weeks. I am excited, she is excited. But I am also a bit sad, not (just) because my little girl is approaching another milestone in her precious life, or because I am going to miss her terribly, or even because she is “growing up so fast.” No, my reason is not nearly so sentimental. I am sad because we will now have to get up early, every morning.

 

I have never been a morning person. I am most productive in the morning, if I can get myself out of bed, and therein lies the rub. I just can’t convince myself, at 7:00 a.m., that getting up early is a good thing.

 

For the past 5½ years I have been in the fortunate position of stay-at-home mom to a late sleeper. Unless we have something scheduled for the morning (play date, preschool, or appointment), we rarely haul ourselves out of bed before 10:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. We do wake up earlier than that, we just don’t get out of bed. If my daughter does happen to rouse herself at the ungodly hour of 7:00 a.m. or so, she is always happy to join me for a snuggle in our bed and we snooze a bit longer. Around 9:00 a.m., we turn on the TV and she watches cartoons while I read the newspaper, she with a bowl of cheerios and me with a coffee. It is blissful.

 

I used to feel guilty about this little tradition of ours and never spoke of it with others, lest they think me a lazy mom! I would lie and say that we got up around 8:00 a.m. or 9:00 a.m., as that is sleeping in for most moms of young children. During this past year, however, I have started confessing my sleepy mommy habits more and more often. I stopped feeling bad about wasting away our mornings together, because I realized that Kindergarten was coming. Soon enough we would be on the same schedule as most of the world and once you are on it, it is almost impossible to get off. So I now proudly tell of the average time we get out of bed (around 10:00 a.m.), I even brag about it sometimes. But I will still never admit to the mornings we laid around until noon; some things just need to be kept private.