Aug 22 2008
Student Independence Day
That’s what they’re calling it over at the elementary school. Basically what it boils down to is that starting Monday August 25th, parents will be officially barred from walking their children to the classrooms. The adjustment period is over, cut the cord already, drop them at the entrance and vamoose. Shoo. Move it along.
Easy for them to say.
Promoting independence is one thing, but abandoning my little boy at the doorstep to this institution where everything is conveniently miniaturized and smells like chalk, well that’s just asking too much. Anything could happen during that walk from the entry way to room 26. He could get disoriented and walk into a broom closet, he could slip on that overwaxed linoleum and get concussed, he could fall in with the wrong crowd of kindergarteners and end hopped up on Jolly Ranchers or God forbid Yo-Gos.
Oh the horror.
Really, I swear, I’m not that crazy hovering mother everyone tsk-tsks.
I just like taking my son to his room, I like walking him to his seat and seeing him settled, that first day anxiety gone and replaced with pride. I like that brief little glimpse into his day, because by the time he comes home there’s very little he can articulate, very little he can share because so much has happened to him.
Leaving him at the entrance is more letting go than I’m comfortable with.
He’s only in Kindergarten after all. Wasn’t that a big enough step for me him?
