From One Parent To Another — The First Day Of School DOES Get Better

As I woke up this morning and jumped on Facebook, I noticed so many pictures of parents being sad about their child's first day of school. They were finally "leaving the nest", and for some parents, it can be pretty hard. I have to admit that I was pretty sad when both of my kids left. But it does get better...

I can remember thinking, "Is it going to be this hard to say goodbye to them every year?" The answer is no. It gets much, much easier. As a matter of fact, if you work nights or you are a stay-at-home parent, you're probably going to become accustomed to having your own time in your house without your kids. Yup, I said it. You're going to get your own time back! It will be those school vacation days when the kids are home again that will become hard.

Think about it: You're going to be able to get all kinds of stuff done during the day now. All that laundry that needed to be folded that the kids kept tripping over as they were rushing through the house will actually get folded and put away.

You're going to get your own bathroom time. Yup...nobody knocking on the door just to ask you to change the channel from Nickelodeon to Disney.

You need to take a nap, or catch up on some TV? You can do that now. Your time during the day belongs to you. And you can do whatever you need to with it.

It's not to say that we don't miss them...we do. But it's just easier to know that they're doing something that's healthy for them while we get time to be adults again. After we had gotten up early to get them all cleaned up and fed for their first day back today, I saw the pictures on Facebook, and I said to my wife, "Aren't we supposed to be taking pictures of this or something?" So we did. But it wasn't such a sad day today. The lazy days of summer are over, and it's time to get back into a routine.

I know that one day I'll miss the rushing around and getting ready for school. Today though, I'm going to just enjoy it. I hope you do too!