Hello Kindergarten....Goodbye Blog 



We've started the wheels in motion for Kindergarten. Nana is buying the must-have penguin backpack. We've signed up for registration. Just today, I started reading and filling out the numerous forms that evidently one must produce in order to attend public school. I'm scheduling the eye doctor, the dentist, and the physical. (Since when do Kindergartens require a dental appointment, anyway?)

It starts in a month. One month! Where did the time go? I just gave birth to this first child of mine, the daughter I wanted more than she will ever know.

These first 5 years were mine - all mine. I nursed her much longer than most in society would deem appropriate. I slept with her in my bed more nights than the Dr. Spock would recommend. We had 3 years together before her brother entered the world. We were inseparable. We did everything together. She taught me how to be a mother.

I've chronicled many of those lessons here, and on discussion boards and the rest. I think that is one of our duties as parents of infants, toddlers and preschoolers - share the wealth. Tell the stories. Laugh and cry together.

But now, a new chapter starts. And this is not my chapter. This is her chapter. The stories will be her stories. They won't be mine to spill out on the internet for friends and family and strangers to read. She's starting school and will make her own friends and discover her own talents and become her own person.

So for privacy and security but mostly out of respect for my firstborn, who isn't quite as forthcoming as I am, I will be stopping the blog. If there were a way that I could make it so only safe, trusting, loving relatives and friends could read it, I would. But it is the internet, and I can't. The beauty of the internet is that it is completely public. That is also the danger of the internet. For me, a mother with a daughter heading off to school, - the danger now outweighs the beauty.

I have a box of my journals boxed up in my basement. I started in 4th grade and never stopped. Daughter D. has a journal as well, one that she does at preschool. We've decided to start a new one together and chronicle her first year of Kindergarten the old fashion way - through paper and pencil and crayons and words and drawings.

One step backwards for technology....One giant leap forwards for our ever-changing mother/daughter relationship.

Goodbye, and thanks for reading!
 

Posted: Wed - July 27, 2005 at 02:57 PM          

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