Just like the dream of a charming family holiday picture or the cute kid in the Halloween costume, I unknowingly had a “First Day of Kindergarten” photo fantasy. Can you blame me?
My child would certainly be posed, smiling, in front of the school bus with his too-large backpack. I would sniff back a few little tears. We would both be proud. After the picture in front of the bus, I’d surely get a few more of him waving from the inside before the bus got smaller on the horizon.
But no.
Instead, we don’t qualify for the school bus. So, I drove him to school (kicking and screaming, I should probably mention) and we walked two blocks to the school hand-in-hand piggyback then holding hands.
And just when we approached the gate to the school yard, he bolted. Away from school.
Our first day of kindergarten
And I called after him, trying not to sound crazy in front of the other parents who are not yet my friends, “Mommy can’t run in these shoes. Please come back here or I’ll ask that construction worker to grab you and bring you back.”
He did return. I took a few more awkward photos of his backside: cute over-large backpacked child at drinking fountain, cute kid facing away from me, and the famous blurry-child (who thinks the camera is off).
On the bright side, I was looking for the lines
Once we were inside the classroom, I got a semi-smiling picture of the side of his face.
He's happy, right?
The next day — that famous Second Day of School — Alec dropped him off and he let Daddy take every picture!
Last year’s first day, we had a similar experience. Ash decided that was the day he didn’t want kisses or hugs in public anymore. He pushed me off as I tried to hug him, got on the bus (we do qualify, thank goodness), then he would not turn around to wave nor would he look out the window. I have not one good photo. Yesterday, his fifth day of 1st grade, I finally got my first wave from the window!
All these Back-to-School posts… I know that day is going to be here far too soon… *sniff*
That is hilarious! oh how life never goes as we picture it but somehow usually ends up even richer.
Today was the first day in our house. While I had the collared shirt your cutie is wearing in this pic all ready to go, Big said he didn’t want to look nice (kid tantrum #1). Dressed in his tshirt, jeans and oversized hoodie I told him I’d give him 5 M&Ms if he’d take a couple pictures. He did…crying through most of them (kid tantrum #2, mom tantrum #1). We all ate M&Ms to make us feel better, then headed to school. I won’t go into the details, but we both had a few more tantrums and tears. So much for the storybook first day. Think I’ll follow your lead and send dad with him next time!
@Amy, I didn’t have the heart to show the picture of him sobbing on the front porch (but I was heartless enough to take it). He also decided it would be funny or better to wear his shorts on one leg and one arm, so we had part of the morning like that too!
Gosh I wish that was my experience! I could not stop laughing and feeling happy for you, your little one wants to go with you! My 4 year old was taken to Pre-K for the first time wednesday and he was CRYING not because he was going to school, but because I had to get out of the car to sign him in, he wanted to be dropped off because he’s a big boy that goes to school….
[...] Running away from the first day of K: Heather’s rookie kid goes to Kindergarten and she feels cheated that she didn’t get the perfect picture of him to capture the milestone. But in fact, she did. [...]