At Meet the Teacher night, R had been nervous about not having any friends, and I told her once we met her teacher, she would already have one friend for the first day. I privately let the teacher know of her concerns, so when we were leaving, she called R over and said that there was a little girl who was nervous about her first day and asked R if she could be a special helper on the first day and befriend the other little girl so she wouldn't be lonely. Brilliant! Give her a way to help so she's not thinking about her own problems.
All went well the first day. But then Monday came, and she lost her water bottle and lunchbox, and yesterday they girls had their first tardy. And today they had dentist appointments at lunchtime (because 6 months ago, I didn't realize school would already be in session), and I had to pick them up at exactly the same time as the kindergarteners were going to the cafeteria. Not only did R not get to eat, but today was supposed to be the first day she was going to get to have school lunch. For a little kid who's looked forward to doing such a big kid thing, it was devastating. She cried all the way to the dentist's, and even into the chair. She finally calmed down, and after her cleaning, she went to play in the waiting area while I set the next appointment, and she fell and scraped a scab off, and her leg started bleeding. Major meltdown again. Got that addressed, then picked up fast food since she still hadn't eaten, got to school and no one was in her class. She was distraught. After eliminating art, P.E. and music as possibilities, figured out they were at recess, and another teacher helped her outside. Finally got back to work - two hours later.
I totally get why all my friends told me I shouldn't be worried about not being able to stay home with the kids when they were babies, and that it would be worse once they were in school. It will be a miracle if we make it to May at this point. I'm so stressed out by the time I get to work, and I haven't even started my day yet. Working on coming up with a better system, because we just can't keep having awful starts to our day. Pray for me, friends!
