First Day of School Jitters…for Mom!

Just this weekend, some friends and I were reminiscing and discussing how incredibly fast our homeschooling journey has been.  I had started our journey with these friends when our kids were all toddler and preschool age.  At this point, we have all tweens and teens amongst us.

It was a timely conversation, given that my daughter started college today. No, she hasn’t graduated from our homeschool yet, but is an early dual-enrolled student. In fact, she’s starting her first year of high school and her first year of college!  We found a (hopefully) ideal situation with a small private university that is just a couple miles from our family business.  She rode in with Dad for her 3-hour 9 a.m. class, will do some school work on campus for a couple of hours, and then be picked up by Dad to help in the office for a bit before heading home with him after a long day.

This morning as they were heading out, it felt a bit like her first day of preschool. I was nervous that day, too!

Almost exactly 11 years ago on the first day of preschool.

She was branching out into new territory and new experiences. I remember giving her plenty of advice that first day heading into the world of 3 and 4-year-olds:

• Pay attention to your teacher.
• Play nice with the other students.
• Be sure to act like a big girl!
• Watch out for boys that might hit.

My advice really wasn’t all that different this morning.  The class might be dull, so try to stay awake. Get along with your classmates and remember...this is a college class. I did have one slight variation on the last one:

• Watch out for boys that might hit *on* you.

What can I say?  I want her to blend, but am also a bit worried that she'll blend too much! I really wanted to write something like, "too young for you" across her forehead with a Sharpie marker, but she wasn't going for it. "My dad owns guns" and "I aspire to be a nun" were equally dismissed. Fine.  A lecture will have to suffice.

There was another stark contrast. I remember we teased her the first day of preschool by pulling her into the parking lot, stopping the car, and saying, “Well, you have a great day!” pretending that we had no intentions of walking her up to the building and her classroom.  Today we were teasing her that her dad was going to hold her hand and walk her to her classroom (smiles).  Yep, she was just as mortified as her first day of preschool when she thought we wouldn't walk her in.  Oh, and the fact that I had to text her after her class because she didn’t think to call her nervous mother to let her know how it went…well, a definite sign that the dependence of the preschool years is long gone.  Sigh.

First day of college with breakfast on the run (and a side of 'tude!).

As you can see, she wasn’t thrilled with my insistence of documenting her first day of college.  In fact, I think her response was something along the lines of, “There. You have your memory.  Can you stop now?”  Aww… I’m not sure if the sweet preschooler smile or the eyerolling teenager pose is more endearing. You just want to hug them and tousle their hair either way!

Growing up sure is hard…on the parents, that is!  Have a great “first” day of school, honey!