WAAAAAH! My baby is going to start school!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Okay, so it’s not exactly school, it’s more of a pre-k/daycare thing. But she’ll be learning stuff, and socializing with other little kids on a regular basis.

My daughter is 3 1/2, and my husband is a stay-at-home dad, so neither of our kids has ever been in regular day care. But I know a couple of people who have kids my daughter’s age, and they’re in this program, and the kids just LOVE it. They’re always busy, they go on lots of field trips, and they get good, quality attention at remarkably reasonable prices. I checked the place out this afternoon, and it looks very nice. Lots of stuff to do, clean play areas, well-maintained building & outside playground with lots of stuff for kids to climb & play on. What impressed me about the playground was that a) it was grass, for the little kids (like mine) who are perpetually falling on their faces, b) it was large, but not so huge that you couldn’t see all the kids at all times, and c) the playground equipment was the smaller-sized Fisher-Price/Tuff Stuff equipment, not huge metal stuff like you see on regular school playgrounds.

My daughter is geeked about going to school. Oh boy, does she ever want to go to school. I think she’s ready for it. It makes me happy that she’s so excited about it, but then it makes me kind of sad that she’s (snif snif) turning in to a “big kid.”

So, tell me the stories about when your babies started school! What can I expect?

(a quick aside: this particular program is now requiring that the kids get the chicken pox vaccine, and I know it’s required starting this year for all kids entering kindergarten. My daughter hasn’t had it yet, but of course, she’ll get it. Anyone had any experience with it? Any negative reactions?)

2

I hate to say this, but I really don’t remember my oldests first day that well. I know that I felt anxious, but now that my oldest is entering fifth grade, it seems like a long time ago. Now, I long for summer vacation when they’re in school, and long for school to start again during summer vacation.

I don’t think that my kids have had the chicken pox vaccine, but all of my kids have their required vaccinations, and no problems so far.

3

My little boy is starting school on September 18th. He’s always been with me, so I’m scared to death. Doesn’t help that he’s going to German school, so I’m anxious about the language barrier, too. :frowning: In my head I know that he is a happy, self confident, bright child who will manage just fine, but in my heart he is still that little preemie I was afraid to hold.

I’m also a bit freaked out about the sheer grown-upedness (is that a word?) of being the Mother of a School Child. Where did the time go? I went shopping for his school slippers yesterday, and I couldn’t help but giggling, it felt so absurd. I mean, it seems like just yesterday I was the child getting shoes bought for me.

And I’ve also got a serious case of baby lust right now, I guess because Nicholas is showing signs of letting go of the apron strings. I practically cry everytime I see a new baby, I want one so bad. I’m not sure what we are going to do about that one since we’re starting a new business and I really need the free time when Nicholas is at kindergarten to work. Pers would you mind lending me your baby for a few days, just to get it out of my system?

Re: The chickenpox vaccine. Nicholas has to get his, too this month. I chose not to give it to him when he was a baby because it was still very new and there was some talk that it might cause shingles (even more so that just getting the chicken pox would). It seems like that fear was unfounded. I haven’t heard of any negetive reactions to the shot in my circle, but just to be on the safe side I’d ask my doctor and make sure the little one isn’t sick when she gets it.

4

you can experct her to dye her hair jet black, get her nose pierced and a tattoo that says Billie - Ray inside a heart.

Also expect your kid to take up selling Hoodcaps stolen from the neighbours BMW’s.
:wink:

[mushy-mushy]
Expect her to have a big hug and a smile because she hasn’t seen you all day.[/mushy-mushy]

5

Today is MY baby’s first day in high school. I’ve always had to work, so I never did the “first-day-of-school” thing. When she made the change from daycare to pre-school and from pre-school to kindergarten, Grandma was there. My mother-in-law took pictures for me and I got the excited stories after I got home.
Sarah has always loved school, but I know she’s nervous this time - we just moved to this area last month, so she’s not just facing a new school and a new routine, but there are <ominous chord> the upperclassmen!! As we walked around the campus for orientation, I tried not to shudder at the blue hair and numerous piercings and OBVIOUS bad attitudes that prevailed… OK, it wasn’t that bad <cue geezer mode> but it wasn’t like that when I went to school!
Anyway, I think my point is: life as you know it is over. Your word takes second place to “The Teacher” and pretty soon, your darling child would rather be with classmates than with you. And that’s good, unless you never want the “empty nest” to deal with. And my advice to ALL parents: Stay involved and stay in touch with the school. When it comes right down to it, NO ONE cares about your young un’s progress as much as you do!
Oh yeah - and be prepared for “Mom, I need 3 dozen cupcakes tomorrow - I forgot to tell you…”

6

Persephone, honey, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. First day of school? Pfffft! Cakewalk.

Sakura is 15 now. Wait till your “baby” starts getting a cute little figure guaranteed to turn the boys’ heads.

Oy. Where’s my baseball bat? I can’t sleep at night. Get thee to a nunnery, Sakura.

7

Persephone,

When my oldest daughter started 4 yo kindergarten I was all ready for a crying fit but she could barely find it in her to turn around and wave bye to me ::snif:: It was way harder on me, she was SO ready to start school.

Mr. Baby just got the chicken pox vaccine last month and breezed right through it, it’s no different than any other vaccine. BTW Mr. Baby also started walking yesterday on his 13 mth birthday ::another snif:: but now I get to watch the drunken baby walk which is so amusing.

8

All right, I don’t have a child but the baby lust has been eating at me for about year and I just decided to wait another four or five years to have a baby. Oh man, I should not have read this thread now I want one even more. <sigh>

9

My little guy starts preK Sept. 5th. I’m already a weeping wreck. I know he needs to go, I don’t think it would be fair for him to get to Kindergarten and all the other kids will have had 2 or 3 years of organized learning and he wont have a clue. My problem is, this kid is everything to us (I can’t have any more, I shouldn’t have been able to have him) but once he goes to school, he’ll just be one of the crowd. What if they don’t like him? Ugh. I can’t stand it.

10

  1. I keep hearing bad things about the chicken pox vaccine. (Maybe that’s just because you tend to remember only the bad news you hear.) My youngest is 10, so we’re beyond the point of worrying about it (besides, all 3 of mine had it naturally), but personally, I would wait until the last minute before getting your kids vaccinated, just in case the scientists come up with yet another “Oh, wait a minute, we used to think–but NOW we know…” type of thing.

  2. Sweetie, your daughter is going to have a BLAST. Don’t worry about her, she’ll be fine. But if you insist on having something to worry about, um, okay, how’s this: worry about the fact that there’s grass instead of shredded bark or sand under the play equipment. There, now you can fulfill your function as a Mother. Worry buzz rising…

  3. I’m with Dave–geez, you think pre-school is traumatic, wait until the first time you intercept an appraising glance from a stranger in a 7-11 parking lot, and what he’s looking at is YOUR DAUGHTER’S tits. Where’s my gun, Pa?

What to expect? Expect her to be totally exhausted when she comes home. She won’t be the “lie down and go to sleep” tired, she’ll be the “too tired to sleep” kind of tired. Don’t plan any activities for after-school–she’ll need quiet time at home to putter around, rest and recharge her mental batteries, get re-oriented, assimilate the info. You get the idea.

[hijack]
Dave, I’ve come to the conclusion that all you can do is keep 'em locked up until they’re 25, and then you just gotta let 'em go. sigh
[/hijack]

Personal Message to Lnix:

Stop and think what it is exactly you’re worried about.
2. He might get lost in the shuffle.
3. The other kids might not like him.

Or is it:

  1. He’s the only one you’ll ever have, he might get kidnapped and you’d never see him again.

You need to sit down and take a major chill pill, babe.

  1. Kids never get “lost in the shuffle”. Within the first week, even the shyest, most withdrawn kid finds a niche.

  2. So what? As he goes through life, he’s going to encounter people who don’t like him. The earlier he starts to learn this, the better. And much, much better for him to learn it now, than wait until Kindergarten.

  3. We all live with this worry. You’ll just have to find a way to deal with it. Teach him about “strong kids, safe kids”–see the children’s librarian for books (and videos) if you don’t know how it goes. Get a family secret password, for dropoffs and pickups.
    Going off to school for the first time is a learning experience for both of you. You both need to learn how to cut the apron strings, because in the years to come, there are gonna be lots and lots of this kind of parting. First day at Kindergarten, first time to ride the bus to middle school, first day in high school, first time to drive the family car to high school, leaving for college, getting married, going backpacking around Europe for the summer…

Parenting means protecting, but it also means letting go.

End of sermon.

Amthystre, serious (hopefully) useful advice: get a puppy. I was going crazy, once, because it wasn’t time yet to “make a baby”, and a puppy filled in the blanks perfectly. And yes, we did keep the dog after we eventually had the baby.

FairyChat: She’s also going to be totally exhausted when she comes home. Don’t be surprised by irrational outbursts, it’s just the psychic exhaustion. Ninth grade is horrible, just the pits, but by Christmas she’ll be feeling better about it. The blue hair and piercings are the least of your worries–the biggest thing is the sudden lack of teacher’s direct supervision, by which I mean, teachers who give assignments at the beginning of the semester and expect the kids to remember on their own that they have a report due in October. In middle school, the teachers always hover (“today you have to turn in your index cards, next week, turn in the rough draft…”); in high school, they don’t, and we’ve found (the hard way) that that sudden freedom can sometimes be disorienting.

11

P.S. to FairyChat:

We’ve also found that the upperclassmen (women, actually) are Gods. What they say, goes. So brace yourself for your daughter coming home and suddenly all her clothes are wrong, her hair is wrong, her shoes are wrong, her backpack is wrong, her lunchbox is wrong (“my god nobody carries lunchboxes to school!” agony agony agony), etc. You get the picture.

Dunno what your personal finance/clothing decision parameters are, but I strongly suggest that you cut her a little bit more slack than usual in this. We had this happen to us in 6th grade (middle school) and in 9th grade, and I’ve always been glad that both times I allowed The Cat Who Walks Alone to go back to Wal-Mart and pick out some different stuff, even though it put us over-budget for school supplies. Difficult to explain to the Better Half, but he’s a nice guy, he got over it.
And if the School Administration says, “No spaghetti straps on girls”, and the upperclasswomen are wearing spaghetti straps anyway, guess who your daughter is going to listen to? Uh-huh…

12

Or is it:

  1. He’s the only one you’ll ever have, he might get kidnapped and you’d never see him again.
    Duck Duck Goose

Don’t think so. That’s honestly never occured to me in a school situation. Just because I have only one child, I’m automatically a smotherer? Maybe I overstated my concern about the situation, I’m anxious for him but I’m pretty sure it’s going to turn out o.k. I think it’s natural for a mom to want to protect her kid(s) from the big bad world as long as possible.

13

geez - guess I’m the only one who slipped into my daughter’s room every night as she slept to whisper “When you’re 18, you’re OUTTA here!”

That explains why I never win that “Mother Of The Year” thingie… <sigh>

14

This is why I didn’t get her the shot when she was a baby. It was just too new for me. But I talked to my mom last night, and she made me feel better about it (every once in a while she does that. Usually she just points at me and laughs. I love my mom). So, she’s going to get the shot. Personally, I’d rather have her build her immunity to chicken pox the good old-fashioned way, like I did, but hey, sometimes you just can’t fight progress!

I went back to the school today to turn in her paperwork, and they showed me around the building where my daughter will be (turns out it’s a different one than I went to yesterday). It’s still very, very cool! All kinds of nifty stuff for them to do. And I also found out that my cousin’s 4-year-old daughter will be in the same class! That’s very good news, because my daughter and my cousin’s daughter are good buddies already.

I know my daughter will love it. Thank goodness there’s no blue-haired, belly-pierced kids in day care, although I fully expect it from her when she gets older–her dad is a musician. Oh, and Dave? I know what you’re talking about. I used to be a teenage girl. I’ve seen my dad give that look to my boyfriends. And even now, as far as my dad is concerned, the three grandchildren I’ve given him are Immaculate Conceptions.

FairyChatMom: Nope, you’re not the only one. I swear my own mom did that to me. She’ll never admit it, nooooooo. But I just know she did!

Darby: Congrats on the little walker! I’ve also got a 10-month-old son, and he wants to walk so bad! He’s cruising on the furniture like a champ, and every once in a while he’ll let go, but he falls right down on his butt. They are cute when they first start motating on their own, though!

Oh man, I remember that horrifying realization! My first day of seventh grade. EEEK! Well, at least my lunchbox wasn’t a Scooby-Doo or anything like that. It was actually a Tupperware lunchbox that my mom ordered, and I’d about give my left arm to have one like it now!