Those were the last coherent words spoken to me by my youngest daughter today as I dropped her off for her first day of school. After that, she crumbled into a screaming, unintelligible heap.
At her father’s insistence, Granuaile began nursery school today. She is going to the same school Eilis went to, and I am confident that it is a good school run by people who care about kids, but she does not want to go. We took her on Friday to meet her teachers and give her an hour of a dry run, but she cried the whole time, and threw up all over herself. Today, no vomitting, but I don’t think she could have cried anymore if someone had crushed her last teddy bear.
She recognized the place from last week immediately, and began yelling in the car, “No school, I want to go home!” over and over, loudly. Then she calmed down enough to get in the front door, calmly telling me over and over she wanted to go home. But as soon as we set foot in the classroom, the hysterics began. She grabbed my neck, locked her legs around my waist, and had to have her jacket pried off of her. The teacher asked me what I wanted to do – did I want to stay with her or did I want to just let them take her. I asked what would be best, and they advised me to let them take her. They said she needed to learn to trust them. I don’t know if I did the right thing. I may never know until I’m sitting at her trial for being a serial killer and she throws herself on the mercy of the jury and tells them this is all her mother’s fault for dumping her in daycare. I know I don’t want her to be the kid going into regular school crying and having to be dragged up the steps. I’m hoping this helps us avoid that when the time comes. I’m also hoping this will help in the potty training department. She knows when she goes, but hasn’t yet found the patience to sit on the potty when she needs to go. I know for both other kids, being around the other kids and going on a schedule really helped, so we’ll see how Miss Gracie does.
She has already told me she doesn’t want to go to school tomorrow, and I’m not looking forward to taking her. I keep telling myself she only really has to be there until June when the other two are out of school, and it makes it seem not so far away, but when I’m handing her off to the teachers tomorrow, and she’s screaming and begging me not to leave her, June might as well be in the next millenium.