High Maintenance Mom

Tomorrow is B's last day of preschool. I've been excited about him moving on to kindergarten but I've had to temper my enthusiasm. About two or three months ago, B started to revert to behavior we hadn't seen in a while. There was loud roaring, hitting, and lots of crying. The teachers said it was due to anxiety about the upcoming change in their lives, something that hadn't occurred to me. Of course, now that B is fine, I'm beginning to see how much of our lives are going to change...

When B started to cry about not being good enough and how no one liked him, I felt devastated. Kids can be mean and it's awful to hear some of the things they say. Most of the things they say, they don't mean yet, but it's still hard to hear. B's teachers suggested not talking about kindergarten, not pushing B with anything, and just being supportive. The crying started to wear on me and it was hard to listen to. Then one day, he seemed a little better. We still couldn't talk about kindergarten, but he wasn't crying and hiding over the little things like not getting the bowl he wanted for breakfast or his brother getting a piece of raisin bread first.

The last two weeks have been much better. He helped pick out a new lunch box and went to visit his after-school program. I still see some of his younger behavior when he gets anxious, but it's not as often. He has even started to ask more questions about what next year will be like.

I'm sure kindergarten is going to be a change for all of us; a new language (his teachers will not speak English during the day), a dress code, a fixed start time that is earlier than we normally get to school, and lots of new kids. But I think we're ready for a new challenge.