The boy took his first day of pre-school with a sort of brave bemusement. He tottered around the yard and whispered his name to his teacher and tentatively took his seat in class and started working on a puzzle. He was almost too distracted to notice that we were leaving him there. Anyway, he didn’t seem to mind. He’d found something fascinating and new and although he didn’t know for sure what it was or where it was going he was determined to try it out. He’s a brave little guy.

The most surprising thing about the drop-off was when we got back in the car. His older sister started silently weeping in the back seat, gloomy faced. She missed her brother. They spend a tremendous amount of time together and although they fight they apparently do love each other quite a lot. This is the first time in their lives that they’ll have regular, scheduled time away from each other. It’s okay to be sad and this was certainly a situation to cause a heavy heart.

The cliche goes, “they grow up so fast.” But, although many parents wake up one morning in shock and realize their kids are grown, the truth is that childhood doesn’t just sneak away all at once one night. It goes in little bursts – tiny salvos of experience and love and sadness. Today my children both grew a little older.

Comments

1. David on 2005-09-09 01:54:55 wrote: My daughter starts school next Tuesday. I don’t know about her but I’m nervous already.