Today is my son’s first day of Kindergarten.
Though he doesn’t know or understand it yet, today is the first day of at least thirteen years of formal education and savoring summers. It’s a rough cycle for a four-year-old to understand and it’s even more rough for a 39-year-old to have to explain.
Instead of dwelling on the responsibilities and the homework and the things he’ll need to do in school to succeed we’ve mostly talked about the fun of riding the bus, the desk full of school supplies that is awaiting him at school and the coolness behind the concept of letting him order his own lunch in the cafeteria. He seems genuinely excited, but deep down I don’t think he’s buying it.
Since about the age of 9 months my son has been going to day care which eventually morphed into “Pre-K” but it was really only a slightly structured babysitting service where they taught the kids basic math and reading skills not out of some urgent need to have them grow as humans but more as a way to keep them busy and give them something to think about other than when they were going to go out on the playground next. He did pretty well in this “school” setting and though he’s younger than most he appears to succeed in just about every intellectual challenge he’s faced with.
Today he begins school, but yesterday he was a free man. For one brief day he was enrolled in no daycare and he hadn’t yet started school. So I took the day off from work and we had a sort of Daddy and Son Bacchanalian feast of fun four a four-year-old. In the morning we bought a new video game for the Wii and we played it until we were dizzy. We took a quick trip to the doctor to pick up forms for school and then we were off to lunch with Mommy at the mall where we had pizza and ice cream and the topped it off with a movie, a second viewing of the only G-rated film around: Cars 2.
A quick tour around the mall burned off some energy before we drove home (he thankfully napped in the car on the way back) and then we finished the evening with more video games, a dinner of chicken nuggets (a far-too common meal these days), twenty minutes of wrestling on the big bed and a quick showing of Jimmy Neutron, the Father’s Day Special. Bath and a bed-time story rounded out the day for our soon-to-be Kindergartener. He mentioned school once or twice, but generally it wasn’t at the top of his mind.
For Mommy and Daddy, though, it’s been the all-consuming primary topic. Will our four-year-old be able to navigate on and off the bus okay? How will he get to his classroom? Will he make new friends? Will he be scared? These are not things a four-year-old is able to fully comprehend or verbalize yet. As parents that’s our job.
Everything will be, as always, okay. There’s no lesson to be learned here. No moral. No ending. Our son is growing up and starting a new adventure. We’re worried for him, but he’ll be just fine. We don’t know where the time went, but parents never do.
That’s how it is.
If you are interested in joining our mailing list, please submit your email below. 
i hope he gets to read this when he is all grown!