"Dad, I'm gone all day like you now. Do you ever miss us when you're gone? Because I didn't even have time to miss Bubba and Dagny, I was too busy doing stuff."
"Dad, when you go to work, I go to school. When I'm done, I come home, and then you come home too. So now I don't have to miss you all day, because I'm doing stuff too."
He sure knows how to makes it sound like we do absolutely nothing at home all day long.
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Sunday, August 20, 2017
First Grade Here We Come
Jordan's starting first grade tomorrow. That means I won't have him home with me for the majority of the day, he will be gone from 9 AM - 3:45 PM everyday. I used to laugh at the moms freaking out over their kid leaving for school, but now I am in the same spot, freaking out a bit. But let me explain why...
School orientation and registration for first time parents is ridiculously awful. As a parent with a child going into first grade at a new school, I was hoping to learn a few things during registration.
How to:
1. drop off and pick up my kid
2. buy lunch
3. excuse an absence
Maybe I didn't read through the information thoroughly (I did), but none of this information was presented to me! I had to go to the office to ask about everything, which was quickly explained to me, but wouldn't a simple worksheet have solved that for me?
Now as I'm pondering through what time to wake up to get all four kids packed so we can walk him to class the first day, I'm getting kind of nervous. It reminds me of all those "first time parent" insecurities and questions we had the first time around. How hard it was to figure things out, how much we scoured the internet and more experienced friends for help. How dumb we felt. How ill prepared we felt. How lost we felt.
I'm so nervous for Jordan. Mostly because he doesn't have any guy friends with him. He'll know two girls because their moms are my friend and they came to our house for a 3-day Chinese camp, but all his besties from kindergarten are going to different schools. I know Jordan won't have any problem making friends, but I'm still nervous for him because I want him to make good friends, ones who will be kind and supportive, honest and good, and most importantly a good influence on him. I want him to feel proud of himself, I want him to love learning, I want him to love recess, and I want him to love first grade. I have so many memories of trying to make new friends, of being a loner, of struggling to find people I connected with, and my heart is just praying that if he has those same experiences, that they'll be short lived and a distant memory.
The other thing I'm scared about is that Jordan is not a sharing information type of kid. My other kids will tell me what they did, what their favorite thing is, the best part of their day, etc., but Jordan is kind of mums about it all. If I ask his Primary class what he did for the week, he says, "I forgot" when I know what he did, because I was with him all week. If I ask him to tell Andy what he did that was fun during the day, he shrugs it off and doesn't respond. It hasn't been a problem for me because I'm with him all day, but once he's in school for most of the day, I won't be privy to his day so much anymore. And that makes me sad.
Nevertheless, first grade... ready or not, here we come.
School orientation and registration for first time parents is ridiculously awful. As a parent with a child going into first grade at a new school, I was hoping to learn a few things during registration.
How to:
1. drop off and pick up my kid
2. buy lunch
3. excuse an absence
Maybe I didn't read through the information thoroughly (I did), but none of this information was presented to me! I had to go to the office to ask about everything, which was quickly explained to me, but wouldn't a simple worksheet have solved that for me?
Now as I'm pondering through what time to wake up to get all four kids packed so we can walk him to class the first day, I'm getting kind of nervous. It reminds me of all those "first time parent" insecurities and questions we had the first time around. How hard it was to figure things out, how much we scoured the internet and more experienced friends for help. How dumb we felt. How ill prepared we felt. How lost we felt.
I'm so nervous for Jordan. Mostly because he doesn't have any guy friends with him. He'll know two girls because their moms are my friend and they came to our house for a 3-day Chinese camp, but all his besties from kindergarten are going to different schools. I know Jordan won't have any problem making friends, but I'm still nervous for him because I want him to make good friends, ones who will be kind and supportive, honest and good, and most importantly a good influence on him. I want him to feel proud of himself, I want him to love learning, I want him to love recess, and I want him to love first grade. I have so many memories of trying to make new friends, of being a loner, of struggling to find people I connected with, and my heart is just praying that if he has those same experiences, that they'll be short lived and a distant memory.
The other thing I'm scared about is that Jordan is not a sharing information type of kid. My other kids will tell me what they did, what their favorite thing is, the best part of their day, etc., but Jordan is kind of mums about it all. If I ask his Primary class what he did for the week, he says, "I forgot" when I know what he did, because I was with him all week. If I ask him to tell Andy what he did that was fun during the day, he shrugs it off and doesn't respond. It hasn't been a problem for me because I'm with him all day, but once he's in school for most of the day, I won't be privy to his day so much anymore. And that makes me sad.
Nevertheless, first grade... ready or not, here we come.
Monday, August 7, 2017
Some Humble Pie For One
I Sometimes, I get to thinking I am the bomb. My pride inflates when I am able to make it to places with four kids on my own, like swimming lessons. It doesn't help when my friends praise me with things like, "supermom!" or "I don't know how you do it." And then I go to swim class and have a piece of humble pie when another mom with four kids, all close in age also, shows up and her baby is definitely less than a month old. And she didn't even have a carrier with her!
Today while I showered during my baby's nap and while the big kids were eating, I thought about this incident as the water trickled and I got some much needed silence. I started to think about how life is funny, perspective is everything, or it's all relative. We might think we are having the roughest day, only to hear someone else had it worse. Or alternatively, we might think we are doing awesome, and there's always someone better or ahead. Wherever we are on this path of adulthood, there is always someone else who has it harder or easier, and we are all different. It was a good reminder that I should be proud of my own accomplishments, but not let it get to my head, and to stay humble. Usually, I have to remind myself not to compare my weaknesses to someone else's strengths, but on the other spectrum, is reminding myself not to compare my strengths to someone else's weaknesses.
Today while I showered during my baby's nap and while the big kids were eating, I thought about this incident as the water trickled and I got some much needed silence. I started to think about how life is funny, perspective is everything, or it's all relative. We might think we are having the roughest day, only to hear someone else had it worse. Or alternatively, we might think we are doing awesome, and there's always someone better or ahead. Wherever we are on this path of adulthood, there is always someone else who has it harder or easier, and we are all different. It was a good reminder that I should be proud of my own accomplishments, but not let it get to my head, and to stay humble. Usually, I have to remind myself not to compare my weaknesses to someone else's strengths, but on the other spectrum, is reminding myself not to compare my strengths to someone else's weaknesses.
It was a good piece of pie.