Today my son Bill started grad school, working towards his Masters degree in business or MBA. He sent me this picture in an email titled "first day of 17th grade".
I smiled at his thoughtfulness in remembering how I always made he and his sister and brother line up together or separately, for a picture on the first day of school. I did this every year and even asked them to send me one when they went away to college. My mom did this when I was a kid and it drove us nuts. Like me though, my mom wasn't that great about putting pictures in albums, which I think is okay. There's nothing wrong with looking at boxes full of pictures with your family, maybe sipping on an adult beverage while reminiscing.
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| My brother and I on just before leaving for school - not a first day I don't think. |
The older my kids got, the harder it was to get them to stop for a moment to so I could take a picture. Of course I planned to put everything in nice photo albums but all of the pictures didn't get there, and are still in various shoe boxes around the house. No scrap booking for me! Another reason I took the pictures was to send them to the grandparents who lived a long way away. Most of the time I did get those pictures sent to them. I was better at that than I was in writing on the backs of pictures too. I have vowed to do better now that I have retired but so far I have collected more pictures that haven't gotten into albums! Most of them haven't even got to pictures but remain on my computer.
I always made it a point to take the first day of school off when the kids were little. I wanted to be there when they got home and greet them with home made cookies or something (not sure I always had the cookies though). I wanted to hear about that first day because being a mom who worked outside the home, by the time I got home, they had already told their dad about their day and didn't want to repeat the entire thing again to me. When they got older, I didn't take the day off, just made sure I was home when they left for school so I could get that picture.
I remember each first day of kindergarten. Kseniya just said "drop me off - you don't have to get out of the car" and skipped confidently to the door of her classroom. I cried all the way back home. When Billy started, he was very excited until he got to the door and then he cried a little bit and hugged my legs, wanting to stay with me. After he saw how much fun it was though, he never had another problem. I had to fight to not just take him back home with me that first day. I again cried all the way home. But of course, you have to let go - and it is not ever easy. When Danny started school, he was eager to get going and I don't think he ever looked back...he was so excited to go off like his big brother and sister. I cried this time because he was the last one and was my baby. He was the hardest to let go of until one day when he was about 16, exasperated at my clinging to him, he said "mom, I am not 8 years old anymore".
Here's a few pictures of those "first days".
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| Bill on his first day of kindergarten, getting advice from his dad who was holding Dan |
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| Kseniya - first day of school in 1987. She was almost 9 years old |
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| Kseniya and Billy - First day 1994 |
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| Dan - first day 1994 |
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There are many other first days of pictures that I have stashed away and looking through them brought back a lot of great memories. I don't think I will ever entirely "let go". In fact I am sure I won't but that's okay. I am so proud of all three of them and the people they have become.
Now I am going to go put some pictures in albums. And maybe write on the backs of them while I can still remember.
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