Over the summer while we were at the beach with my sister and her family, Violet came up with her superhero alter-ego, I think to defend herself from the evil advances of her cousin, Jayden. She is GIRL POWER. Not only is that her power, but that is her name. And notice her "cate" - you mean "cape"? "No, Mom, CATE!"
This morning when it was time to get ready to leave for school, Violet started crying again. I tried all angles today - loved on her, ignored it, bribed her with candy (she said no), reasoned with her, asked why she didn't want to go. You might wonder why that last one wasn't the first thing I did - but some of you probably already know that any three year old probably isn't going to be able to give a coherent answer anyway. And when that three year old is a girl there is an even more tangled web to navigate (of course, I only have girls, so I don't really know what boys are like - they just seem more straight-forward from my vantage point).
Her answer was that one of the boys in class was a monster when they played outside. My advice was probably not the best, but I told her she should whip out her GIRL POWER. I wasn't trying to incite violence, I was just hoping that would make her feel more in control of the situation. She showed no interest whatsoever in my advice.
So I left her at school crying the heartbreaking cry no mother wants to hear, "But Mommy, I want yoooooooouuuu!" At this point I was really super close to just calling it quits on preschool. It just doesn't seem worth it to go through this twice a week every week. I don't know if she threw up today because I left quickly - but she threw up both days last week (and also peed one of the days).
When I picked her up she seemed less than her usual self - she didn't have much to say about school, but when I asked her teachers how it went they said she was fine. She spent about 10 minutes on her own but then joined the group and participated the rest of the day. I just don't know. She's taking a nap now - which is unusual - and we have a wicked cold that we're sharing around so I know she's not feeling tip top. If she's crying on Wednesday morning we may just have to take a vacation day from preschool.
Oh this brings back memories. I remember my son on his first day of preschool - she screamed his head off and when I got to the car, the 2 babies I left locked in the car also were screaming their heads off, and the day just seemed to fall apart. When I picked up my son, the teacher said he was fine just minutes after I left. And eventually he got over it. But I remember it was hard, hard, hard.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, he is now 37. :-)