Busy, busy weekend here. Actually, it’s been a relatively frantic couple of days around here. Thursday, my poor little Sammy had some massive and major issues at school. He’s an anxious little kid, with some pretty major separation/social anxiety struggles that we’ve been dealing with since… well, birth, I guess. And he’s gotten so much better, but there are still triggers that can send him completely over the edge. Being late for school is still a huge one. Because I know this – he’s simply never late. And our policy is that if he was late, it was better to not send him to school rather than send him in late, because it’s that difficult for him. But it’s not much of an issue, because we are just NEVER LATE. Except for last Thursday.
Marc had forgotten to grab his backpack. Or Sam did. Or I forgot to remind him (nothing I like more than spreading the blame around). But because he’s been so great lately, adjusted to first grade without even a hiccup, I thought we could power through. I was wrong. Long story short, the whole morning ended up a complete fiasco, with the Boy not making into school, me getting into a fight (me, a fight – I’m the least confrontational person I know) with a school adjustment counselor and Julie never made it to preschool either. It was just a disaster, all the way around. And certainly confirmed my original theory, which I will now never forget – if he’s going to be late, just don’t bring him at all.
So that was Thursday – and it was pretty much all day Thursday, because by the time I made it home, we had already missed preschool, and I was so stressed that the rest of the day was pretty much wasted. Friday, the kids had off from school, and Glennys arrived. All is better when Glennys comes down. Marc and Jessie went to pick her up, and I had Abby-with-a-bow and Leah and Devin here as well, so it was chaos and busyness all day. Devin ended up spending the night, actually, now that I’m remembering it, Leah slept over as well, so I put the three older girls in Jessie’s room, Devin in Sam’s room, Sam in my room and I think Marc crashed on the couch. Becky and Abby stayed for dinner, which I loved. Always happy when I’ve got my Becky here with me. And I’m especially happy that she and I had daughters together, there’s something enormously satisfying about watching my best friend’s daughter be my daughter’s best friend.
Saturday – Marc was working, and I spent the day at home. With a zillion kids, and it was nice. I actually sent Jessie and Glennys out for a walk down to the park, by themselves. And panicked only a little bit. I baked cookies, had a long chat with my friend Dahlia, put Julie down for a nap. Sunday was Sarah’s bat mitzvah. And on Monday, my Glenny went home, the kids went bowling and Julie took another nap. I totally jumped on Julie’s nap as an excuse to miss bowling, and stayed home to write an article that was due today.
This morning wasn’t easy – because Julie still hates going to preschool. Oddly enough, she doesn’t hate preschool, she’s happy and content when we pick her up, and chatters about it when she isn’t there. But oh – my girl fights going all the time. She usually starts the night before, begging to stay home, crying and sobbing. And the mornings are absolutely hellish. Especially when Jessie jumps on board and starts complaining about how much she hates school as well, and then both my girls are grumpy and/or out and out sobbing, which makes it increasingly harder for me to stay sunshiney delighted about bringing them in. And when I inevitably lose it, because I generally do at some point (because really, I’m not a morning person, and dammit, there’s only so much drama a mama can take before I have to start hollering at them), it just goes downhill from there.
Oddly enough, Sam is almost always angelic in the mornings. He’s either flat out losing his mind and refusing to go (which happens so rarely, it’s only when he’s late – which WILL SIMPLY NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN), or he’s fine, no problems at all. He gets up, watching a Big Bang Theory, eats a healthy breakfast, gets dressed and goes about his day. Jessie is the middle one – mostly she’s fine, but she can throw down with enough frequency that it’s impressive. And Julie just sobs, the whole time, every Tuesday and Thursday.
So this morning was craptastic, and I’m already dreading Thursday. Drop off went well, though, and I’m optimistic that it’ll get better for her as time goes on. It has to, right?
Recent Comments