All Roses, No Thorns: The Optimism of My 6-Year-Old
This morning I dropped off my son at elementary school for his first day of first grade! It was such a bittersweet moment for me as a mom. He was so excited, without an ounce of fear or hesitation, just excitement for what the day was going to bring. And at the same time, I knew he would have fun without being glued to my side.
For the past few weeks, I’ve really been looking forward to today for a variety of reasons. He has this amazing imagination and he’s so smart. He also demands a lot of my attention, a lot of the time. He will play with Lego quietly for hours sometimes, but other times he wants to demonstrate how he builds elaborate creations explaining every single step. (And don’t you dare look away, he’ll start over from the beginning!) My daughter also requires a lot of my attention naturally as she is a 6-month-old that breastfeeds on demand (meaning every 1-4 hours), is just starting to eat solid foods and wants to play while she is awake now.
Then it hit me, like a ton of bricks, I’m going to miss my little boy while he’s in school all day! As challenging as it can be to get anything done during the day, I’ve grown to love the sound of him digging madly for the right piece of Lego, slamming art drawers open and closed as he is creating paper robots and Bill Nye the Science Guy on TV in the background.
As I tucked him into bed last night, we talked about what he was looking forward to on his first day. He enthusiastically replied that he was excited to meet new friends and learn big long words! Then I reminded him of something we started last year, to recall your rose and your thorn of the day. It was a cute way for him to remember something specific to tell us about after a long day in school. The rose was something good and the thorn was something not great. We would talk about his day driving home from school and he would tell me the rose and the thorn. So when I asked him if he wanted to continue that for first grade, he said “Yes! But my first day will be all roses, no thorns! Even if I make a mistake, it’s okay because it’s just the first day.” He was so confident with a positive outlook on going back to school, it made me so proud!
I spend so much of my time worrying about how I’m doing as a mother. But then, it’s moments like these that make me think I must be doing something right, at least some of the time.
What have your kids done lately to make you proud? I’d love to hear about it below!
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