World…Take My Son By the Hand

“Teach Him Gently World, but don’t coddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel. ”

This is a big order, World, see what you can do.”

Well, you say, did you cry?

Of course I cried!! I cried the kind of tears that you hold in so hard that they start coming out your nose instead. Those are the hardest. And then when I got home I let a river flow for a good two hours. Finally at the end of the day, I have it together.

Of course I’m that mother that keeps looking back to make sure he’s ok. Of course I want to triple check to make sure he has everything he needs. Is he Ok? Of course. Does he have everything? Of course. He everything going to be great? Of course.

I don’t know about the dads out there, but the first day of Kindergarten is rough on moms. It is incredibly difficult to walk into a strange building and hand over your child to someone you’ve barely met and say “here you go! have at it! mold his brain! make him the best he can be!”  That’s hard stuff.

Everyone (for the most part) remembers their first day of school. Mine was behind a yellow door with a fine lady named Mrs. Waterson. I did not know my ABC’s. I learned them there. I did not nap. I wore a dress everyday. I loved smelly markers. And some kid made a robot for show and tell with a ghetto blaster inside to make it talk….which totally kicked my cabbage  patch dolls’ tush. That’s what I remember.

What will I remember about his first day…..how he directly asked the teacher if it was illegal to wear his sunglasses outside, because he needs them. How he did not hang on my leg. Or wimper. Or act one bit scared.  How he hugged me and I whispered in his ear to “be awesome today”  because that’s what I told him to do if he got a little bit nervous the night before,  and how he smiled and ran off into the morning sunshine, that made him look so little to me,  to the playground where he did not know one single soul, with a big smile on his face.  How he turned around and waved once and then off he went.

That’s what I will remember.

People keep tellling me my life will change now. I’m OK with that. I just want it to change him ever so slowly, a pipe dream I know, but it never hurts to dream right?