Holding On Tight....

I'm on the end-of-term-merry-go-round right now....

I've been on it for two weeks at least & we have another four weeks to go....

then it stops and finally, we exhale. 

And collapse with exhaustion usually.

I know that the summer term is always like this....

this year even more so though.

I'm on the school Summer Fair committee & it's my daughter's last term at this school so there are extra events....parties, a drama production, days spent at her new school.

The last this & the last that....goodbyes to old friends.

Happiness & sadness.

I'm really trying hard to see each day & each event not as just something to check off the list but as a moment to be savoured, enjoyed....treasured.

I'm holding on tight.

My daughter is moving from being one of 29 in her school year to being one of 260 in a year.

She now has a new mobile phone, she'll have her own set of housekeys soon & we'll no longer walk back and forth to school together each day.

I won't know all her schoolfriends or their parents.

I won't always know what she has for lunch.

We'll both be on a new & very large learning curve.

Big changes ahead.

Exciting ones.

New opportunities.

A whole new world for her.

New friends, new subjects to study, new teachers.

One minute she was four and a half years old and just starting school....

the whole family (including the 2 day old new baby brother) walks her to school, you hang her bag up on her peg with her name on it, you take a photo or five, you hand over her snack and drink, you communicate with the teacher if for no other reason than to let them know your daughter is new (as of course is every other child there!) & you are an extremely conscientious, loving, responsible parent who will be back at 3.30pm on the dot, you give your child the biggest squeeze and kiss possibly ever, then you slowly back out of the room, waving continously.

 Then you peek at her through the window trying to catch her eye although she is by then very happily playing with her new friends and having a wonderful time.

You are possibly already wearing sunglasses to hide the inevitable tears.

Happiness & sadness all at once....huge dollops of it.

Fast forward seven years & she is starting secondary school.

You kiss her & hug her - she's now the same height as you.

Make sure she has lunch money.

She closes your front door behind her 

- no walking her to school this time - 

and she's off.

A new chapter awaits....I'm holding on tight.