Kindergarten: It's not for everyone

I might be delusional, but apparently, there are kids who do not love kindergarten.  Who knew?!?  The good news is that I am sure that there are none of these kids in my class.  The bad news?  There is definitely one in my house.

Yup.  You guessed it.  Ben is not a big fan.  The mornings are rough.  He cries as he makes his lunch.  He clings to me as I try to head out the door to work.  Every once in a while he announces that he's not actually going.  He says he has fun at school.  I hear bits and pieces about what he does at school, but he maintains that he does not like it.  I think it's just too long of a day for him.  And the mornings are hard because even though he is fine at school (according to my spy, his sister) looking down the barrel of six and a half hours is just too much.  And the teacher in me knows he is fine, but the momma in me?  She's a wreck.  And it's all I can do to peel him off me and kiss him goodbye before I start crying with him.

One evening this week, I asked him how school was and all he said was, "Long."  By the time I get home at 4:15, the fact that his day was too long for him is abundantly clear.  The tears usually start just before dinner.  Most of the time because of some unreasonable request on my part.  Like to put his bike in the garage, rather than behind my car.  Or to actually sit in his chair while he is eating. 

Here's how things went down on Wednesday.

Me:  Here's your delicious dinner of homemade taco soup and some saltines.
Ben: I ate 5 crackers.  Can I have more?
Me: Sure.  As soon as you eat your soup.
Ben: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.  It's too muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch.  I can't eat all thaaaaaaaaaaaaat.
Me:  That's fine.  You don't have to eat anything you don't want to.
Ben: But I'm hungreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

After this exact same conversation 2 more times, he disappeared upstairs.  Honestly, I was just so glad that the cracker convo was over that I didn't even really notice until he came downstairs in his jammies with his blanket.

"Mommmmmmmeeeeeeeeee.  Snuggle meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee."  And then he crawled up on my lap for a nice long snuggle (which I secretly love).  By 6:20 I was tucking him into bed.

Thursday morning was a little bit better.  There were no tears but he declared that it was the best day of the week because once it was over he wouldn't have to go for three whole days.  Sounds like progress to me!  Before dinner he even let it slip that he loved school.  Woo hoo!! 

And then we had the same exact dinner scenario as the night before, except for rice and meatballs instead of soup and crackers. 


And again, he was crying on the couch.

So we have established that kindergarten just isn't Ben's thing.  I usually tell concerned parents that September is hard on kids, but after the first month they tend to adjust and get used to the schedule and routines.  Well, September's dunzo.  Here's hoping my own kid doesn't prove me wrong on Monday.