What I’m Excited For This School Year

About this time each year, my social media is buzzing with back to school articles written by moms who are determined to make readers cry. Everyone is talking about how time flies and how our babies aren’t babies anymore. My friends are sobbing in the aisles of Target while school supply shopping. The back to school “remember when they were just babies” reminiscing is the hot topic at the playground, and parents everywhere are trying to recall when the last time they held/rocked/bathed their children. My son starts kindergarten at the end of this month and I am not buying into all of the teary blog posts.

Here’s the thing – I’m excited for my son to go to kindergarten. Not for the routine or schedule of it or that I’ll finally be able to get some solid work done at my kitchen table alone (though all that will be nice), but because school is awesome and watching him start to navigate this part of his little life makes me more proud than when he took his first steps. I love watching his confidence grow and I love the facts that he tells us during dinner time. He is becoming a little person, with his own way of handling new things and his own ways of coping with stress or uncertainty.

Don’t get me wrong – I loved my son when he was a baby. I loved the nursing and the rocking and the playing on the floor. I’m sure I’ll get a bit teared up when I drop him off at school in a few weeks. But I cannot wait to see what this year has in store for him. Watching him do things like jump off the high dive at the pool and stand up for himself when kids at the playground aren’t being very nice will be in my life’s highlight reel forever, even more than his first solids or potty training success.

I’ve always looked at parenting as preparing him for the world. He’s not mine to keep forever, and if I raise him right he won’t want to stick around the house for the rest of his life. It’s my job to give him the experiences and the skills to sail his ship and let his light shine. In a few weeks, his ship sets sail towards kindergarten. I’ll wave to him proudly and can’t wait to hear his stories when he comes back home.

About This Blogger

Haley Burress

Haley Burress is the proud Mama of Jackson, a 4 year old who was conceived after 4 years of injections, procedures, and more early morning internal ultrasounds than she cares to count. She spends her time writing for parents and educators while her son is at preschool or napping. Haley lives in the northwest Chicago suburbs with her (handsome) Principal husband, son, and a fish named Blue that somehow has not died in the past year. She's a Christian, an introvert, and a wanna-be yogi. You can usually find her reading a good book, dancing in the kitchen while cooking dinner, falling on her face while attempting crow pose on her yoga mat, and hiding in the bathroom eating a brownie so she doesn't have to share.