It’s his first day at High School. How am I going to cope?!

oday was a big day for us all: transition day for my eldest child. Slowly and with some trepidation he got dressed. I tried to hide my feelings about losing my eldest child to High School. I drove along the short journey that my son would soon walk every day. It seemed like every danger that ever existed on the roads presented itself to me that morning! Traffic lights had stopped working. The busy main road had more fast drivers on it today. Kids were running across the road unaided by any lollipop people or pedestrian lights, as they were broken. As we pulled up outside the local High School, both of us were a bag of nerves.

‘Will you walk in with me Mummy?’ my son pleaded. I turned to look at him, a huge lump in my throat. Everything inside of me wanted to shout, ”YES and I’ll also defend you against anyone who might make fun of you because of what you are wearing/carrying/saying.” But instead, I found myself running against all my natural motherly instincts and saying “no”. I reassured him that things would be okay, that even though this felt like a scary step, things would work out and he would have a wonderful day. And then I watched as he opened the car door, walked across the road and through the school gate. When I could see him no longer, I burst into tears, unable to drive away through the sobs, snot and waterfalls streaming from my eyes. How would he survive without me? What if something awful happened to him and I wasn’t there to help? What was I going to do all day without him? I finally managed to stop crying enough to see and made my way home.