OK so this sounds silly but Im not very excited about her starting school... I dont know what it is but Im worried (more for me - not her)

Did you have all thoughts of funny feelings when your kids first started school. I was covering her books the other day and had tears in my eyes which is so silly.

Its terrible because I keep telling her she will love it and she is excited but I am not looking forward to it.

Is it normal to have all these emotions/feelings when your child first starts school??

Yeah. It's totally normal. I cried like a big ol baby the day J started school. Managed to hold myself together slightly better when C started. I'm sure if M had started at 5 I would have been a sobbing mess LOL.

Yeah so I am not the only one. I was starting to think I have issues! lol

Nope. Totally normal. It's really hard watching your baby becoming a big kid.

oh gawd TOTALLY normal. seriously. I had many moments, before school started, getting so emotional about it all.

Her first morning I did okay dropping her off (no tears etc) but it was walking out of the gate back home that the tears started! lol.

For me I kept thinking that she starts schoool as a baby (well as much as a 5year old is a baby lol) and by the time she will leave the schooling system she will be a young adult. scary.

totally totally normal!! Its so hard letting your baby go and spread their little wings, knowing you cant be there holding there hands and protecting them!
I cried lots when dd #1 started school and just the thought of dd #2 starting makes me cry

Oh phew - tears here too. The day of her last day at kindy I took her up to school and it was lunch time - and it was chaos! That night once I got into bed I suddenly got SO upset -
What if she can't find her classroom?
There's no gate - what if she just walks down the road?
The boys are too rough - she won't cope - I won't be there to help her etc. etc. I decided that she was too young for school and I didn't want her to go It's 2 weeks today until she starts. Oh I'm gettting teary thinking about it!

Thanks guys I dont feel like such a big baby now!!

She has her first school visit after the holidays, dont know how I will cope with that even.

You could always homeschool

Just to update, she had her first school visit yesterday and loved it! Im still not sure how I will cope but she was shy at first and after an hour at school she was sitting at the front of the class with some new friends - maybe it wont be as bad as I first thought!

Mine was like this too. How to make a mother feel inadequate and redundant.

Just wait until the "but my teacher said....."

haha toootally. i get the 'but Mrs X said...." allll the time

Pudding- i can totally relate to all those fears..espec the gate one as my DS was a real little runaway...for some reason they just dont at school....tho im prob one of the rare parents who HAS had a phonecall from school to say the've lost my son ...lol...he took his bag and left class and noooobody could find him...not sure where he was but he eventually turned up happilly playing in the playground oblivious to what he'd done or the comotion he'd caused...he'd used his selective hearing the teacher was telling them that 'afterschool' they can take their bags and wait at the playground for their mums...so he did

My DS starts school mid-August and even though I'm excited for him, I also starting getting all snuffly just thinking about it. I'm like you Pudding, all the what-if's? But hey, everyone else's 5-year-olds managed so I guess ours will too

2girls, did you stay the whole time in the classroom for that first visit?

yeah. I think thats the thought to hang on to. My kids are the LEAST likely in the world to run off but still I was worried about their being no gates lol. Just part of the natural process of letting go a bit I guess.

I think each school has their own preferences, but our school likes the parent to stay for the 1st before school visit & then make your own decision about the 2nd (and 3rd if you have one).

Pudding-has she started? how was it? bet she loved it!

Yeap I stayed in the class for this visit and they get parents to stay for the 2nd visit too but the 3rd and 4th visits the child stays by themselves

I was worried about the first day too. It's so big and comparatively unsupervised and the playground has a massive old wooden fort like I grew up playing on not one of the new, bright, low ones. I had to remind myself that I played on those forts and survived. I also had to look at all the big kids and remember that they were all 5 once and they are all ok too.

The first day is a good one to have behind you that's for sure!

Mine is starting at the beginning of October, just in the process of organising the visits and the uniform. The other night I started balling when I was sitting on the couch reading the prospectus. DH thought I was a bit strange but I am finding the transition quite traumatic, leaving the security of pre-school and his lovely teachers there. Add to the mix that when he starts I will have a week old baby on my hands, I am thinking I am not going to handle it too well!

Hi
Just updating, J started last Monday. She had major first day jitters, she was actually shaking, but settled in well and was fine all day. She's fine with me leaving her even before the final bell rings and has made friends. So yay! The only thing was that the sign on the door of her room had been taken down so she panicked a bit, because she had it in her head that when she couldn't find her room she would read the sign on the door. The teacher hadn't made her a name tag for her bag hook or cubby hole either and that upset her a bit. Overall it's been away better than I thought it would be Her reading books are way too easy so just waiting for her teacher to get the level right and she'll be away I think.

Wow I had not thought of it all like this, we have done two school visits, for the second visit my DD asked me to sit outside the class room, great I thought time out in the sun reading a magazine! Last school visit next week and then starts on the Thursday. I am as excited as her, so much fun, a new chapter, she is just hanging out to learn more. Cannot say I have felt teary at all. The only thing is the logistics of getting there on time. With kindy you kind of just turned up when you could!

My little baby started school today too! *sniff, sniff* She was fine, and actually it was me who got choked up when another little boy was crying and not wanting his mum to go.

She's been well ready for this for months, actually, so it's about time. Leaving her daycare teacher was the hardest thing for her, I think. All her best friends had already left to start school, so that part wasn't difficult.