First grade for the littlest Donovan started today.  He was nervous.  I was nervous.  Well, actually, we were both a perfect blend of nervous and excited as we drove in.  His teacher is young and energetic and I think they will get along very, very well. 

When I picked him up, though, the first reality of what school actually is sunk in.  He made it to the car without really saying much.  Then, as we got in and I asked how his day was and who his new classmates were, he broke into tears.  At recess all of his friends from kindergarten (i.e. his old classmates) were all playing with their new classmates.  It broke his heart.  When I asked him who he played with he said “no one, I sat by myself because everyone said they had new friends”.  Which is the point when my heart was broken.  I did all the standard parenting things one should do - I told him that first days are hard and that he will make his own new friends in his class but that his kindergarten friends are still his friends too, blah blah blah blah.  My intial reaction was to go to the playground and find the little twerps who left him out at recess and sit on them - but I settled for the confidence speech and the hopeful promise of tomorrow.  There is nothing like watching your kid deal with social b.s. - partly because as a parent, you finally realize how torturous and unnecessary it is and partly because you know how painful it is.

He’ll get through it just like we all did.  In the meantime, I might have to break out my brass knuckles just to flash around at the playground tomorrow…….

This entry was posted on Monday, August 14th, 2006 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Character Development, Child Development, School and Learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.