Who Knew School Drop-Offs Would Be This Emotional?

While dropping little sis off at school yesterday, we may or may not have both cried in the car.

Lately, now that she is in school, our 3 year old has been telling everyone in the house how she misses them during the day. To her brother: “I miss you Fa-Fa at tool (school).” Fa-Fa = the name she calls our middle child, even though his name doesn’t start with an F and only sort of sounds like what she’s trying to say. 😂. But it’s cute and we love it, so we don’t correct her.

She’s used to spending all day every day with all of us, so I totally get why she takes the time to tell everyone how much she misses them when she’s gone, because to be honest, we miss her, too.

On the way to school yesterday, she was saying it to me from the backseat: “I miss you, daddy.” I thought it was so sweet, and so I told her that I will miss her, too. She said it again before we pulled up, so again, I let her know how much I will miss her. And finally, when we pulled up to her school and I turned off the car and unbuckled my seatbelt, she said it a third time: “I miss you at tool, daddy.” Only this time, her eyes were filled with tears as she was smiling trying to keep them from falling down her cheek. This time, she was telling me, in so many words, that she wasn’t ready to say goodbye for the day.

And just like that, my eyes suddenly started to tear up, too, and I felt a pain in my chest. We hadn’t experienced this with any of the kids yet, and I thought we had avoided it altogether this year. All of them had been so eager and excited to start school that I thought we blew past the not-wanting-to-go phase. Up until that point, she had been more than willing to walk into her classroom every day.

I told her it’s okay to cry if she’s sad because I do it, too, and that we’re supposed to miss people when they’re gone; it’s how we know how much we love them, but even that won’t stop us from having the best day ever! She ended up being fine, gave me a big hug goodbye and walked into her classroom ready to start the day.

Whew. Those are some strong feelings at 8 in the morning, aren’t they? It’s so different with the boys and dropping them off, I think because she’s still younger than they were when they both started school, so it’s a little harder to say goodbye to her for a few hours every day. Today, however, things didn’t end so well. She ended up bawling as I signed her in and wouldn’t let go of my neck. I knelt down and put her on my knee and held her for a few minutes to calm her down but to no avail. She wasn’t ready.

It ended up being for the best, though, because last night she started having a runny nose, so we took this as a sign that we should take her to the doctor with her brother this morning ( poor guy got a strep throat confirmation). Looks like neither of them will be going to school tomorrow, so we’re hoping by Monday she will be back in the game and ready for a new week with her teachers, her classmates, and without her dads for a few hours a day.

Who knew school drop-offs would be this emotional?