Despite having the start of school marked on my calendar for the past six months, and despite having all sorts of Pinterest-driven resolutions regarding bento-box lunches, cute first-day outfits, and this insane idea that I would somehow start the school year with an immaculate home, I still managed to put every single thing that needed doing off until yesterday, which made the weekend a bit of a mad scramble.
Witchcraft!
I had this great idea a few weeks ago to make friendship bracelets for each of them, in their new school colours, and maybe to make one for my husband and I to wear as well. A talisman, of sorts, a reminder that, although they might be alone in a new classroom, with new kids and a new teacher and a new school, that we were always with them in spirit. Feel free to make fun of me now. Actually, wait, because the next part will give you more ammunition.
Three weeks ago I picked up the embroidery floss to make these bracelets. I haven’t made them in years, so I hunted down some internet instructions, and watch a YouTube video, and …. then the bag sat in my kitchen until last night, around 7PM. That’s right – all that big talk about making the kids a talisman to remind them of Mommy, and three weeks of looking at that bag sitting on the kitchen table as I made dinners and breakfasts and snacks, and I never made the bracelets, in part because I vaguely remembered that they didn’t take very long, a memory that turned out to be a giant fat lie, because I got one inch of one done last night, and my husband, who is making the second one, got about three rows in. I don’t get it. My friends and I used to make these in college, when we were drunk as sailors, and I swear it took us no time at all.
Feel free to commence making fun of me now.
Despite my failure as a mom to provide the kind of first day of school, PerfectMommy, Social Media friendly experience required to be a good blogger, my husband and I muddled through, packing lunches and spare clothes, and snacks, and iced-up water bottles. I also gave them a pep talk about not hitting people, doing what their teachers ask of them, and being brave. I talked to them about how they have so much experience with being in a classroom because they went to PreK, and how other kids might not know what to do, and that it was their job to help their classmates, and we talked about what to do if a classmate was crying or looked sad. I got them to brainstorm ideas on that last one. One of my daughters said she would, “tell that kid that it was okay to be sad, and we would be brave together” and the other said she would introduce herself, and “ask that kid to be my friend.” And then I had to excuse myself to the ladies room and dab at my eyes for a moment, because I was so proud of them. And because it makes me laugh that they refer to all other children as ‘that kid’ all the time. No names. Just ‘that kid’.
I let the kids pick out their first day outfits, but it isn’t an accident that they picked exactly what I wanted them to wear. I don’t know what I am going to do when they figure out how completely sneaky and manipulative I am, but hopefully that doesn’t happen until after they graduate from university. Hopefully! I am not quite a monster, though – they really love the shorts they wore, and the shirts are pretty plain, because both girls are adamant that they don’t wear anything pink, sparkly, dresses, skirts, or girl clothes. So I make them wear stuff that mostly doesn’t fall on that list, but that I personally find charming, that is very comfortable, and that does not impede monkey-bar swinging, and other shenanigans.
Starting tomorrow, they ride a bus, but today we both drove them to school, and stood in line with a lot of other parents and their children. We each took a girl to her classroom, got her situated, and then swapped so that we could each hug and kiss them before leaving. One of my girls had a moment of anger and frustration in the hallway, I think because it was so crowded and chaotic, but I pulled her out of the worst of it, and then she whispered to me that she was going to change her attitude, and she did, cheerfully hanging her stuff in her locker, and putting her lunch in the right bin, and finding her seat right away. She has been very nervous about Kindergarten, and I asked her if she felt okay, and she gave the thumb’s up and said she was great, so I went to see her sister, down the hall, and she was fine, too. They were really fine with it all.
I did see a number of Dads with suspiciously red eyes, in the classroom, but only one child openly crying. A good start to the year! We went to the PTA coffee afterward, held in what I like to refer to as ‘the crying room’, because of all the weepy Dads, and a woman came over and introduced herself. Turns out, she lives across the street from me, and we have kids in the same class. She and her husband seem like interesting, fun people, and I am looking forward to getting to know them better. This whole ‘making new friends’ thing is on my to-do list, and has been ever since we moved here. Hopefully, this is a start.
I have big plans to clean the kitchen today, and clear away the end of the summer mess that seems to have settled in every room. The school hasn’t called me yet, to tell me that one of my girls punched someone else’s kid, so that seems like a good omen. And those friendship bracelets, I decided, I will finish up tonight, and they can be ‘first day of riding the school bus’ bracelets, for tomorrow. They will be just as magic tomorrow.