The Verdict: School Stinks

I'd love to say that I'm sitting here with that 'my-kids-are-off-to-school-and-I-love-it' grin on my face, but sadly I am not. So far, school has been nothing but tears and stress. And I don't mean for just the kids. Since Alex has begun the trek into full-day school, he's been an absolute mess and a half. He comes home from his day and within mere moments of walking in the door, him and Abby are at each others throats. They literally start fighting on the wagon ride home. I'm thinking of getting them boxing gloves just to soften the impacts. Perhaps that falls under the "bad parenting" category. Though the image of them duking it out in a wagon on the walk home would be quite entertaining. I fully expected there to be added stress to our days with the start of school. What I didn't expect, however, were the horrible temper tantrums and random explosive bouts of crying for teeny tiny things that, on any normal day, would not cause even a blip on the emotional radar.

Alex is a mess in the evenings. His behavior has gone from wonderful to volatile. Today he forgot his lunchbox at school and upon realizing this, broke down in sobs of sheer sorrow. The lack of sleep is starting to weight heavily on him, I fear. Abby does fantastic during the day with all Mommy's attention on her. But the moment brother comes home, out come the cat claws. Literally. She has scratched him just for looking at her. My highly independent son has been asking me non-stop in the evenings if I will just hold his hand and I hear 'I love you mommy' 30 times in two hours. Don't get me wrong. I love that part, but I know it's because he misses me. (The feeling is mutual little dude.) Tonight was the first "I don't want to go to school tomorrow," through sobbing tears.

As for school itself...well...the kid seems to enjoy it when he's there. He's super pumped about P.E. and the library and he is making friends daily. But the confusion poor ol' mom feels right now is quite frustrating. The organization/communication between the school teacher and the parents is spotty. Alex comes home with papers that don't have explanations and with stories about his day that don't make sense (regarding behavior and such) and blast it all! I still haven't gotten my temporary 'brain break' towel back from last week because apparently they are letting another little boy use it due to the fact that he doesn't have a towel sent by his parents! *grumble, grumble* What is up with that, I ask? Oh. And miss Abby? Yes. Well she hasn't even started school yet, but today on the walk up to meet Alex for lunch, she looked at me and said, "I don't want to go to school." I said, "It will be super fun Abby! You'll love all the friends you'll make and Miss Cindy is really nice." She then said, "Fine. I'll go, but if anyone talks to me or if Miss Cindy talks to me, I'll just open the door and walk home all by myself!" Seriously? She's four years old! How did she even compose that sentence?

*sigh* On top of everything, We had to deal with the school giving him 'milk' at snack break despite the fact that I specifically signed papers stating that he was to receive absolutely nothing not approved or sent by me. Turns out that it was, in fact, soy milk, just like Alex said. But after coming home and hearing my milk allergic kid say that he was getting some new kind of yummy soy-milk at snack time, I think my heart leapt into my throat. I spoke to the teacher, the office, and the lunch lady responsible for providing snack milk, (who by the way all freaked out when I told them our lines had gotten crossed) and found out that it was all due to bad communication between the staff. Great. I feel much better now. (note sarcasm) It's not bad enough that I worry about the food allergies at school all day that he is gone. If you don't have a food allergic kid, thank the good Lord above. The stress and worry will make you go grey early. Alex already caught a cold and has needed his inhaler for the past week. And lastly, he was teased last week by a kid in his class about his food allergies. The kid kept trying to touch Alex with his food and saying, "It's not itching you now! It's not itching you now!" I eat lunch with Alex to hope and train him how to be safe around other people's food. But when you see little Johnny with chocolate bars drooling down his peanut-butter covered cheeks as he wipes it away with his Cheeto cheesy fingers, I try not to panic and break out my wet-wipes.

I hate to say it, but right now, school is not my favorite part of the day. It's going to take some major getting used to and some serious shifts in my trust factor for me to start being comfortable about the whole thing. Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels like ripping the hair from my head and screaming madly into the night. I'm starting to think I stand alone. Here's to a better tomorrow...pretty please?