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But my favorite of all…..is Fall
Author: Theresa Stangle
Cue the cozy sweatshirts that have collected dust all summer, fall is here! It is back to routines, the temps cooling, football back on TV, and my change in coffee creamer flavor for a couple of months. All these reasons make me savor the season of fall.
This year we had milestones in our home that make this fall different than all the others. Like I shared last time, I entered a new decade with a birthday. My second daughter also entered a new decade by turning 10. On top of that my oldest entered middle school and the youngest of the house got to start preschool.
I remember when my oldest daughter started kindergarten and the milestone that it felt that day. I took a couple hours off work to follow her that morning to watch from a distance. I dropped her off at daycare at our normal 6:50 a.m. Instead of going to work, I sat around the corner from daycare in my car and waited. We scheduled the public taxi bus to come by to pick her up at our scheduled time an hour later. My head and my heart needed to know that she got on the taxi and safely to school starting such a new big routine.
Right on cue the small white bus arrived, took her ticket, and safely picked up three others before making their way to Brown Elementary School across town. I followed the taxi like a crazy parent to make sure yet again that all was OK.
As she arrived at school, I didn’t want her to see me, so I parked across the street again to watch from afar as she arrived safely at the playground. She was nervous and a little lost not talking to anyone. She was just standing holding her backpack as the chaos of kids were running around her. My Mom heart broke, but I stayed in the distance and waited as I knew she needed to navigate this change without me holding her hand.
Work schedules did not allow me to watch more than that morning, so every day for the next several weeks I think I played one million questions to a 5-year-old to ensure that she was engaging with other kids and navigating our change. Like most, she persevered in the change and the routine back her new normal.
This year as a more seasoned Mom of four, my heart was still as I watched my nervous little man enter preschool doors for the first time. Job changes allow me now to drop off and pick up. So instead of watching from afar like with the first one, I got to be right there holding his hand to walk in. He was so cautious to stay in his new environment as it usually takes him a little bit to warm up to people. I am not ashamed to say that I had set the stage with a bribe of a new toy if he went in and stayed without crying on the first day.
The Mom of just one child would never have done that, but as a Mom of four you are often in survival mode, so a $10 new toy was totally worth the successful start of a new routine. I am happy to report that since that day it has gotten easier each time, and he now hugs me at the door and runs in to school.
Seasons of life and seasons of change. I am a different Mom today than I was 12 years ago. However, I can look back and appreciate each season — but I will still say fall is the best season of all.