Friday, August 17, 2007

First Week of School

As so many parents before me know, that first week of school is really stressful (for both parents and kids). This should be titled "Be careful what you ask for," as many of you know how much stress went into our family's choice of getting our daughter into our particular school.

Here's the summary:

It has been really hard to drop off my daughter each morning. She looks at me with this mad look while asking me to come along, and then walks off with another child or a teacher in a pouty walk. It is hard to let your child go into the world without you--especially when she isn't pleased with the decision either. Though I can't complain. I have witnessed my share of kids being dragged screaming into their classrooms. At least I only get the look (so far).

Our daughter didn't have a single potty accident this week, so it looks like we might not get kicked out for not meeting the potty training contract! When I drove up each day, first I looked to make sure my daughter was still alive, then I always looked to see if she was wearing the same clothes I dropped her off in (she was). This was way more stressful than it needed to be. Can I tell you how relieved I was the first day when I noticed a 5 year old little girl had peed her pants on the play ground!!! I know that may seem awful, but it was a RELIEF to see this.

As expected, we were surrounded by straight parents, with at least one other same-sex couple in our daughter's class. This hasn't been nearly as stressful as I had planned for myself so far. The school stresses diversity, so when talking to other parents solo (without the other mom), I couldn't let the conversation go too long without letting them know our daughter has two moms. From the first day, the other parents were already talking about play dates, car pools, etc. I thought if we were to be rejected by any of the parents, let's get it over with early instead of waiting for some parent to find out later. Who knows if this is the best strategy--it wasn't even thought out, just what jumped out of my mouth.

I did see two parents whispering when I ran off to catch my daughter. I don't think I am being paranoid when I say I am fairly certain they were talking about us. But, if that's the worst, that's nothing. I'll keep you posted.