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<< back to Parenting/Family Issues FIRST GRADE CAUSES REFLECTIONS ON DAUGHTER’S FIRST SIX YEARS I remember during the first year of my elder daughter's life how I would always skip a month or two ahead in What to Expect During the First Year and think to myself that having a 10 month old was light years ahead of me. I thought that a one-year old was some sort of myth - a walking child of mine? Never. Today, I sent my walking, talking, singing, dancing, reading, American Girl loving, soccer-playing six year-old off to first grade. And her younger sister, fast coming up on five, is going into JK. The time has gone more quickly than I ever could have imagined back in the days of reading my tattered getting-through-the first-years guides. I know that I am not alone in feeling as if, since that first ultrasound of my child's heart beat, my life seems to have gone on an automatic fast forward and that I rarely have control of the remote to slow it down. And yet, there are a million moments big and small, that I can play back in slow motion for myself that help me to remember that it hasn't really been just a blink of an eye. It's been a journey to get my girls here, to this place and time. I think of the obvious things of course, births, homecomings, holidays and the like. But I also think of the things like the first time I ventured to Dominick's alone when Bea was six weeks old, proud of myself going in and mortified as I left, due to the screaming fit that she put on for what seemed like an eternity as we waited in the check-out line. I remember all the times some knowing parent or grandparent would try to help in those situations rather than make me feel as if I were the only one ever to have a child unhappy about something in a public place. How grateful I was for that, and I now return the favor at every opportunity. I remember the hours at the parks meeting new moms, trying to remember names with the correct faces. Wondering, among other things, what damage I was doing by delaying naptime in order to enjoy the extra minutes of sunshine. And then cursing myself for forgetting the extra SPF for my baby's face. But then I discovered something that I should have known all along. Every other new mom out there is feeling the same thing or something like it. Bonds are developed through the shared experiences of the new moms in the parks, at the beach, in yoga class, or stealing a few moments at Starbucks. What a great gift it is to live in communities where this interaction starts so early and then continues and grows as our children get older and enter our marvelous preschools and grammar schools. I now watch young mothers, new to the North Shore perhaps, with a bit of the same shell-shocked expression I once wore, and I want to say to them, "You have landed in one of the best places on this planet to raise your little ones." It all seems new and scary and different, but your community is here for you. Open yourself up to it and you will be grateful forever.
Jennifer McManus is the mother of two daughters. She is a preschool teacher at All Things Bright and Beautiful and also is amember of the Winnetka Alliance Board of Directors. |
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