Last night, Meg had a church kids event to go to. I took her, expecting to need to wait until the event got going. The organizer was there, along with a few kids, but they were going to wait upstairs for more kids to get there before getting started.
I asked Meg if she wanted me to stay for a bit.
“No. Bye, Daddy.”
Hug, kiss, and I was out the door. With Meg left in a new situation with mostly new people. Bonkers.
We’ve struggled with leaving Meg places for, oh, her entire life. Any time we’d switch to a new school, we’d have to plan for, literally, weeks of struggling to get her situated and used to the new place and new people. Every morning, we’d have to build in an extra 10 minutes or so in order to extract ourselves from the “dropping off” stage of our day. By the end of the session, be it school or some kind of day camp, she’d be just fine! But that initial “drop off” would be a huge hassle, as Meg tried to exert her dominance and ultimately would fail.
We expected the same thing with Kindergarten this year. As recently as a few months ago, it took a few weeks before she’d stay at the YMCA without throwing a fit. We had to resort to bribery to get her to do it. And last year when we started at the Lab School, even with taking Calvin along to the same place, she’d cry as we tried to leave.
Yet Kindergarten? Shockingly, it only took a day. After only one day, she was good to go. Yes, there was crying that first morning, but after she realized there were a few people she knew in her class, she did alright.
And at church last night? A place we’ve attended a few times, but never in this context and never with these kids? I was practically shoved out the door.
Likely, this was because the adult is a woman who’s also a Kindergarten teacher and who we’ve connected with on Sunday mornings. But still, this is like a whole other child. One I don’t recognize.
One who’s growing up.
And we couldn’t be happier!
Way to go, Meg!! Hope she had fun after you left, too!