The last few years brought a new, different kind of “normal” to our lives. COVID fears, COVID realities, to mask or not to mask, hand sanitizer, hoarder mentality, to vaccinate or not to vaccinate, delta, lambda, etc. A new vocabulary and set of acronyms that even the kids started to use in everyday conversation.
And suddenly, just like that, time has elapsed and here I am again, finally…
My older son will be starting kindergarten this Monday. He is 5.5 years old. As I sat in orientation evenings and Meet-and-Greet afternoons, I felt and am feeling overwhelmed. Perhaps it was the months (and years) of denial that this child is growing up, is about to start his academic career with daily school, questioning my years of parenting and whether he was ready, was I going to be ready, how would he do, will he be able to keep up with his peers, will he make new friends, will I make new friends, just millions of questions going back-and-forth bouncing through my brain a million times a second…
But today, our “last” day together before he embarks on this new journey, I tried to tune that out and just enjoy the few hours of quiet I had with him, like before his brother was born, before we had appointments and sports and teachers and meetings to go to… Just my #1 (son) and me. When I look at him, I still see his baby face, the bald, round-cheeked, toothless-grinned, waddling/walking chubby baby… but when I see these collages of where he and I were from the beginnings of motherhood, I wonder how he got so big, so tall, so talkative… I love you, Jakey-Pooh-Bear! May you always love hanging out with your old Mama Bear!!!
I’m all ears for any/all advice you have about this amazing transition in our lives. I hope everyone’s first days of school goes smoothly!
Trust Me, I'm a Doctor Mom 