is how I approach many of parenthood’s transitions (and they are endless!). I’ve always struggled with most of my own transitions in life, whether they be daily (waking up, going to bed, pulling myself away from a fun time), or milestones (changing jobs, moving away from friends and family). So it’s no surprise that I get nervous for major transitions that my daughter continues to encounter... although I don’t quite think “nervous” cuts it. Palms get sweaty and I often find myself squeezing my eyes shut as though I’m about to land, head first, onto Planet Tantrum.
Maybe it’s protective, to a point... most of the time the anticipation of the transition is worse than the actual event, so it winds up being not that bad. So I should be “bracing” per se, as much as I should be letting the change “wash” over me, accepting the new. That’s part of the constant challenge in parenthood (er, LIFE), right? Letting go and making way for new experiences, new times.
I write this as we are going through our own little transition: G is moving up rooms at daycare. This is really the first daycare move I’ve really wondered and worried about her understanding; we actually swithed daycare centers twice before this, but she’s been at this new place since she was 11 months old. Now she’s 20 months old, so it’s been a long time coming. And by “move” I mean that she graduated to an adjacent room, separated only by a half wall and a saloon door. And the kids all play together, and she already knows all the slightly older kids in her new “class” and of course she knows all of the teachers. But it still feels so big, when she’s oh so small, and the universe is shifting in a systematic way for her.
Maybe I’m protectively “bracing for impact” because it seems like the noble thing to do, to over-empathize for my little one’s emotional experiences. As I write this I know how overstated it sounds, and let me assure any readers that I do not dwell on this day in day out, but I do think it’s remarkable how much we live through and for our littles (and not-so-littles). True as the day is long.
I’ll update when we make it through this!
