Sorry, Mommy: Circle Time Rules

When I dropped my son off at preschool at age 3, he seemed excited. When I picked him up, all of about three hours later, they said he sat and cried the entire time. It was his first day, so we said we’d give it some time.

After about four weeks later, he had spent every single day there crying. He insisted a teacher pinched his arm, and he clearly wasn’t enjoying it. That was enough for us to stop the insanity.

I missed him terribly at work all day, and it was crushing to think he was so sad. My husband is a stay-at-home dad. We didn’t need babysitting, but we thought it would be good for him to socialize with other children, as well as start his educational track off right.

Needless to say, he wasn’t getting much out of it by sitting in the corner and crying for three hours straight, two days a week. So, he quit. That’s right—my son is a preschool drop-out.

Fast-forward three years with a child on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Today, I dropped off my 3-year-old daughter for her first day of preschool. She sat from the moment she woke up until the moment we left for school begging me to take her.

“I like school better than home,” she informed me. (She hasn’t even been there for a full day, just a simple tour, and she’s ready to ditch me.)

“Are you excited?” I asked her.

“I want to go now!” she yelled.

This child, somehow, is totally ready.

I imagine a large part of it is the fact that she has watched her big brother go ahead of her. She knows he loves school, and he sees his friends there. He claims it is great fun, while she sits with boring old mommy working from home.

She is also a very, very different child. It is often shocking to me that two children, with the exact same genetics and same upbringing, are turning out so completely different.

My son is outgoing, funny and charming. My daughter is independent, stubborn and headstrong. My son is a boy in every sense of the word. He has a short attention span, and he likes to get dirty and play sports and sweat. My daughter paints her nails, could color for hours, plays alone in her room, and dresses up as a princess at least once a day.

They are, of course, opposite genders, but it is much more than that. They have totally unique personalities. They each take the same situation and approach it totally differently.

I love both of my children more than anything in my life. And, I love that I get to watch them grow up, in two totally different ways, everyday.

I promptly took my daughter to her classroom a bit early to make sure we could find her new cubby, get her paperwork in, and settle her in the classroom. It wasn’t really needed. She dumped her bag right off where they showed her the hook would be, sat in with a new friend for circle time and didn’t even say goodbye.

Instead of prying off a crying child, she wanted me to “get out” so she could go to school. I had to beg for a hug. I have to say the transistion was harder for Mommy. She was great.

I’ll have to go pick my daughter up soon from school. I hope she’ll come home with me.