D-Day

Today is d-day in our house. First day of daycare day.

For 8 years I worked and ran residence halls and hosted move in every year for new students and their families. I hosted parent meetings to talk about the hall, safety, security, their students' experience, and answered any questions that would help make their students' transition as successful as possible. And deep down to help the parents transition be as successful as possible. And now, I host orientations again for new students and their families with the same intention of helping both have a successful transition to college.

And today I finally understand the feeling of dropping your kid off in someone else's care and having to TRUST that everything is going to be fine.

I used to watch families on these crazy moving days and just try to put myself in their shoes, but let's be honest, I could relate more to the 18 year old new student that was so ready for freedom than the parent struggling to let go. The other thing I always observed is that the students were always READY to go, often shooing away the parents, while the parents were hanging around and hanging around. In our parent meetings we would often give them a time to actually say goodbye and go home.

So this morning as we are taking Connor to daycare I started thinking and using all the strategies I could to make this day a little easier.

We had already essentially "moved his stuff in" on Friday taking diapers, wipes, etc to his room. We saw his crib and we had toured the place before so it felt more common and comfortable for us. Connor could have cared less. In the car ride, he was talking to himself and laughing up a storm. When we got there he was ready to get out of the carseat and play. One of the teachers immediately walked up to him and he smiled at her and that was it. Mom was history.

But in a way, I'm happy I'm history. Joe and I have never wanted Connor to be attached to us per se. We have always wanted him around lots of people, playing with lots of people, and understanding that Mom and Dad are only two people in his world of many. And on the way out too, Joe said, "He's going to make friends today and that's great. I want him to be around other kids." (I hope we feel the same way for first time all those friends' germs get him sick, get him in trouble, etc.)

And when we move him into a residence hall 18 years from now, I'll probably feel the same way. Sad that my little boy will take one more step to independence and establishing his own life but happy that he will benefit and learn so much from his time away from us.The difference is now I get to pick him up every evening, love on him every night, and cherish all the time in between now and moving to college.

So I'm doing better than expected and glad that he did so well too. And...the teachers told me I could call AS MANY TIMES as I want to today :-)
(sorry there are no pictures today-more to come in the future.)