The Preschool Lament

School has started! 

What didn't you get the memo from all your Facebook mom friends flooding their status's with pics of their kids on the first day of school? (Okay, I'm guilty of that one.) Or those moms' confessions of how much they cried when their preschooler/kindergartner stepped on the bus for the first time? 

Yep, school has started and we are in full swing of the Preschool Lament. You know, the lament from the mom who has a child starting preschool and can't bear the thought of being without their little one for a few hours a day. The mom who rather than putting their child in the preschool in their hometown drags the poor kid to a preschool in the town where they work because they can't stand to be that many miles away from them. The mom who is in the beginnings of a deep dark spiral of depression because they have to face the fact their child is growing up and off to full day kindergarten. 

The Preschool Lament. You've heard it. I've heard it. But I just don't get it. 

I don't get why moms are so sad about their kids starting school. Yes, I miss my kids when they are gone (I do enjoy the silence though) but more than anything I am really excited for my kids and the opportunities school holds for them. School means learning and new experiences, friends and sports, meeting new people and the chance to grow into their personality and the person they are meant to be. 

Yes, I do miss my kids when they were babies but how cool it has been to watch them grow! Just this summer all of my kids went off a diving board for the first time and the boys learned to swim. Yahoo has matured by leaps and bounds in her coordination, speech and cognition in just the last few months. All of my kids have physically grown out of clothes...and shoes...and shoes....and more shoes. 

But for all their growing I'm not sad for the first day of preschool or kindergarten and you won't hear a Lament from me. Growing up is great! I'm looking forward to every phase and age of my kids because every season of their lives holds new experiences we can share and I can open up to them. Last weekend we hiked the Palo Duro Canyon in Amarillo, TX. With three young kids we could only hike for a couple of hours for two mornings. But I can't wait until they get to be teenagers and I can take them to the Grand Canyon and backpack and camp at the bottom of the Colorado River. Very, very cool! 

There are all kinds of things I want to share and do with my kids. But I won't ever get to do any of them if I'm still wishing they were three years old instead of thirteen. By the way, I love thirteen year old kids. THAT is a cool age to be!