Here’s Emma Vanstone with her first Parent Panel post for BornFree Mum & Dad in which she talks about how her little boy has struggled to settle into starting school this term.

Starting school is a momentous occasion in a child’s life. Some seem to take it all in their stride while others find it a bit more difficult. I have watched as mums walk their children into the classroom and leave with little more than a wave. It has not been so easy for us.

My little boy needs to have a pre agreed number of kisses and hugs, his little arms getting tighter and tighter around my neck as we near the end. If I’m lucky I get to leave without him running after me. If not, we have to start the whole process again. He’ll then wait by the window for me to walk past on my way home, his sad little face looking out waving slowly. I blow a kiss and try to look nonchalant. If I look back I’ll see him turn around slowly and go towards his classmates.

We have both shed a few tears in the last couple of weeks. It is absolutely heartbreaking to leave him where he doesn’t want to be. Starting nursery was the same, but somehow it didn’t seem as bad when he was little. I now know his feelings are real and these memories could stay with him for a long time.

I never thought Z starting school would be easy. He takes a long time to warm to new situations and is not good with change. On the positive side, he does have friends from nursery in school and his best friend is in his class, so at least I know he is not alone.

I wonder if I didn’t prepare him well enough; we didn’t talk too much about school over summer as I didn’t want him to worry about it. I tried to make buying shoes and uniform exciting for him, we did both without his sisters so all the focus was on him and I tried to make ‘big school’ sound fun and exciting

I made the decision for him to do just mornings for 4 weeks rather than starting with full days, but I wonder if staying all day would have been better as at least then he would have been excited about his packed lunch!

For now though I am happy to pick him up after just three hours. Seeing his little smiling face at the door, clutching a lollypop and sellotape creation in one hand and dragging his book bag and coat in the other never fails to make me smile. I get to have lunch at home with my boy for a couple more weeks yet.

Do you think I should have prepared Z better? What more could I have done? How have you prepared your children for starting school?

Share on Facebook